Opinion ID: 2632550
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the district court's order regarding the destruction of privileged documents was insufficient

Text: ¶ 112 Menzies also argues that the district court's order regarding the destruction of documents that were ruled inadmissible at the evidentiary hearing held on January 16, 2004, is insufficient and must be augmented. According to Menzies, the district court erred by ordering that the disputed documents be produced to the State in the first place because the procedure for applying the work product doctrine set forth in Salt Lake Legal Defender Ass'n v. Uno, 932 P.2d 589 (Utah 1997), requires the district court to conduct an in-camera review to ensure that the party seeking production meets the Uno standard before such documents are produced. While Menzies acknowledges that the district court attempted to cure the Uno violation by ordering the State to destroy the inadmissible documents, Menzies asserts that the order is insufficient because it does not require the State to identify which documents it had already obtained from independent sources and does not contain any deadline for the documents to be destroyed. We agree with each of Menzies' arguments and therefore order the district court to supplement its order of April 5, 2004, regarding the destruction of the inadmissible documents. ¶ 113 In Uno, we considered some of the discovery issues that have pervaded this case since Menzies' post-conviction petition was filed. In that case, LDA had petitioned this court for an extraordinary writ asking that we reverse the district court's denial of its motion for a protective order. Id. at 589. The State had served LDA with subpoenas duces tecum and requests for the production of all documents relating to LDA's representation of Menzies in the underlying criminal trial in order to challenge Menzies' claims that LDA had rendered ineffective assistance. Id. LDA asked the district court for a protective order preventing the disclosure of these documents, asserting the work product immunity doctrine, but the district court denied its request and ordered that the documents be produced. Id. We vacated the district court's order, concluding that the order violated the work product immunity doctrine. Id. at 591. ¶ 114 In Uno, we first recited the rule, contained in rule 26(b)(3) of the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure, that attorney work productdefined as `documents and tangible things . . . prepared in anticipation of litigation' but not including `mental impressions, conclusions, opinions, or legal theories of an attorney'is not discoverable unless `the party seeking discovery has substantial need' and cannot obtain the materials elsewhere `without undue hardship.' Id. at 589-90 (quoting Utah R. Civ. P. 26(b)(3)) (alteration in original). We then noted that while an attorney's mental impressions are generally not discoverable, there is an exception if those mental impressions are directly at issue. Id. at 590 (citation and internal quotation mark omitted). As we stated in Uno, There is a sense in which the mental impressions, conclusions, and opinions constitute `the facts' of the case and therefore may be discoverable. Id. However, this exception must be applied very carefully in ineffective assistance of counsel cases because a discovery policy whereby counsel's files can be freely accessed in subsequent proceedings has the potential to significantly impair the trial preparation process. Id. In order to prevent such a result, we set forth in Uno a three-step test that the State must meet when seeking the production of attorney work product in an ineffective assistance case before such documents may be disclosed. Id. at 591. For each document sought, the State must demonstrate that (1) it has `substantial need' and that it cannot, without `undue hardship,' obtain the substantial equivalent of the information by other means, as required by rule 26(b)(3); (2) the at issue exception applies to the document; and (3) the document [has been] edited to prevent the disclosure of information not related to the ineffectiveness claims. Id. In Uno, we suggested that LDA prepare an index of the documents in its file in order to help the State meet its burden and also instructed the district court to conduct an in-camera review of each document for which the State met the first two requirements in order to ensure that it does not contain extraneous information that should not be revealed to the State. Id. ¶ 115 Applying Uno to the issue before us, it is clear that the district court failed to comply with Uno by ordering Menzies to produce the disputed documents prior to the January 15 hearing. The materials that the State sought to discover were attorney work product, prepared by Menzies' pro bono counsel in anticipation of litigation, and the State was seeking their production in order to oppose Menzies' claims that Brass had provided ineffective assistance of counsel. Accordingly, the State was required to meet the three-part Uno test in order to obtain the documents. Under Uno, the State was required to meet this test before the documents were produced, not afterward. Id. Thus, upon receiving Menzies' index of withheld documents, the district court should have required the State to meet the Uno test before ordering the documents' production. The district court's order requiring Menzies to produce the documents was therefore a violation of Uno. ¶ 116 To the district court's credit, it appears that the court recognized its error after reviewing Uno and attempted to rectify it by ruling the documents the State sought to discover inadmissible and ordering the State to destroy them. However, the court's order did not go far enough. It is clearly a violation of Uno and rule 26(b)(3) for the State to have in its possession at this time any documents prepared in anticipation of litigation by Menzies' pro bono counsel or their agents. [14] If there are documents that were included in Menzies' index of withheld documents that are properly discoverable by the State or that were already in the State's possession due to prior legitimate discovery, then the State need not destroy them. However, the State must identify any such documents and destroy all others post haste. Accordingly, on remand, the district court must require the State to demonstrate which documents it is entitled to keep, order the State to immediately destroy all of the remaining documents, [15] and take all other necessary steps to ensure that the Uno violation goes no further.