Opinion ID: 1712049
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Communications with Third Parties

Text: ¶ 42. Sharp and the Scarberrys next argue that the circuit court erred in ordering production of documents from Niebler involving communications with third parties. Sharp and the Scarberrys contend that the circuit court's ruling sacrifices confidentiality for efficiency, and that Lane has made no showing that he was unable to obtain these documents from third parties. ¶ 43. Lane argues that the circuit court's decision was within the court's discretion, because Niebler's correspondence with third parties is relevant and not within the scope of the lawyer-client privilege. Lane argues that Sharp, the party alleging privilege, bears the burden of showing good cause as to why the requested documents should not be produced. Furthermore, Lane contends it is imperative that he obtains discovery from all involved parties, in order to compare notes and piece together circumstantial evidence of fraud. ¶ 44. During the oral decision denying Sharp's and the Scarberry's motion to quash, the circuit court judge stated: There is an offer here that this kind of information may be available from third parties, but there's also documentation by way of the excerpts from depositions here that that was denied the plaintiff in the normal course of those depositions. And that being the case, it may be that there are other sources of this same information, but it occurs to this Court that the most efficient way of obtaining them is through the Niebler law firm file. Furthermore, in the written order, the circuit court required production of all non-privileged documents, including documents reflecting the Niebler firm's communications with third parties for the time period Lane requested. [14] ¶ 45. We conclude that the circuit court did not erroneously exercise its discretion on this issue. The circuit court judge carefully examined the situation and, significantly, found that there was evidence that plaintiff was denied the requested information in the normal course of depositions. More importantly, however, is the fact that the circuit court ordered production of only non-privileged documents. Accordingly, documents protected by the lawyer-client privilege, or the work product doctrine, were not part of the circuit court's order regarding this issue. We, therefore, conclude that the circuit court's decision does not reflect an erroneous exercise of discretion, because the court examined the relevant facts, applied the proper standard of law, and reached a reasonable conclusion based on a demonstrative rational process. See Paige K.B., 226 Wis. 2d at 233.