Court Opinion

ID: 9547677
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:50:19.378432+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:17:56.554506
License: Public Domain

QUINN, Justice,
specially concurring:
I specially concur in the result. Although the appellants did not specifically assert in their complaint that the search of Morley’s law office violated their constitutional rights of privacy under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article II, Section 7 of the Colorado Constitution, they did claim that the search irreparably harmed their “legally protected right to confidentiality of documents protected by [the] attorney-client privilege,” and they requested an order enjoining the disclosure of the seized documents to third parties. I do not view the stipulation between the parties as an abandonment of the appellants’ request for an adversary hearing but, rather, I interpret it as nothing more than an agreement to submit briefs to the court on the proper procedure to be followed in resolving the appellants’ claim for injunc-tive relief. Given the nature of the appellants’ claim and the record before us, I believe the appellants were entitled to at least some form of adversary hearing in order to protect their enhanced privacy interests grounded in the lawyer-client relationship. However, because the seized documents already have been disseminated to law enforcement agencies, granting an adversary hearing at this stage of the proceedings would not undo the disclosures which already have taken place and, for this reason, I believe the judgment of the district court must be affirmed. I write sepa*1224rately, however, for two reasons: (1) to point up the need for procedural safeguards, over and above the traditional procedures associated with the issuance and execution of a search warrant, in order to prevent unjustified intrusions, likely to occur during a law office search without these safeguards, upon the privacy interests underlying the lawyer-client relationship; and (2) to explain why I believe that, without these procedural safeguards, a post-seizure adversary hearing on the crime-fraud exception does not, by itself, adequately protect the constitutional right of privacy implicated by the law office search.
I.
The search of a lawyer’s office for client files poses a special threat to the confidentiality of the attorney-client relationship because it circumvents the assertion of the attorney-client privilege, thereby exposing normally unobtainable information to the police. See Bloom, The Law Office Search: An Emerging Problem and Some Suggested Solutions, 69 Geo.LJ. 1 (1980); Note, The Assault On the Citadel of Privilege Proceeds Apace: The Unreasonableness of Law Office Searches, 49 Fordham L.Rev. 708 (1981). Putting aside any potential incursion upon the privilege against self-incrimination that might result from such searches, see Fisher v. United States, 425 U.S. 391, 416, 96 S.Ct. 1569, 1583, 48 L.Ed.2d 39, 58 (1976) (Brennan, J., concurring), the unmonitored search of a lawyer’s office endangers the privacy interest not only of those clients against whom the search is directed but also the privacy interest of other clients not under investigation who have made confidential disclosures to the attorney.
Law enforcement officers executing a search warrant in a lawyer’s office likely will find it necessary to peruse miscellaneous papers in attempting to locate the materials sought. Even when documents are located, there still might be other entries in the documents which are immune to disclosure under an applicable privilege. Furthermore, any client may have his file seized under the plain view doctrine, which only requires that there be a reasonable nexus between the documents seized and criminal behavior. E.g., Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 464-72, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 2037-42, 29 L.Ed.2d 564, 581-87 (1971); People v. Franklin, 640 P.2d 226 (Colo.1982). A law office search, without special protective procedures, will inevitably cause a chilling effect on attorney-client communications and pose a significant threat to a client’s constitutional right to the effective assistance of counsel guaranteed by the United States and Colorado Constitutions. U.S.Const. Amend. VI; Colo.Const. Art. II, See. 16; see Weatherford v. Bursey, 429 U.S. 545, 97 S.Ct. 837, 51 L.Ed.2d 30 (1977).
The attorney-client privilege is the oldest of the privileges for confidential communications known to the common law. 8 J. Wigmore, Evidence § 2290 (J. McNaughton rev. ed. 1961). Its purpose is to encourage full and frank communications between attorneys and their clients in order to promote the broader public interests involved in the administration of justice. Such interests include preserving the dignity of the individual by assuring that he is given protective rights against the power of the state. Thus, “[t]he privilege recognizes that sound legal advice or advocacy serves public ends and that such advice or advocacy depends upon the lawyer being fully informed by the client.” Upjohn Co. v. United States, 449 U.S. 383, 389, 101 S.Ct. 677, 682, 66 L.Ed.2d 584, 591 (1981). The privilege rests on the need for the lawyer “to know all that relates to the client’s reasons for seeking representation if the attorney’s professional mission is to be carried out.” Trammel v. United States, 445 U.S. 40, 51, 100 S.Ct. 906, 913, 63 L.Ed.2d 186, 195 (1980).
Our legislature has recognized the enhanced privacy interest inherent in the attorney-client relationship. Section 13-90-107(l)(b), C.R.S. 1973 (1981 Supp.), includes the attorney-client relationship within that special category of relations “in which it is the policy of the law to encourage confi*1225dence and to preserve .. . inviolate” communications made in the course thereof. The privilege extends to all information conveyed by both individual and corporate clients to the attorney in confidence for the purpose of obtaining legal advice. Upjohn Co. v. United States, supra. The inviolability of the privilege is particularly significant in criminal prosecutions where the constitutional right to counsel necessarily includes a right to confer in private with one’s attorney. Geders v. United States, 425 U.S. 80, 96 S.Ct. 1330, 47 L.Ed.2d 592 (1976).
The devastating effect of a law office search is all too apparent when the target of the search is a law office which engages in the representation of the criminally accused. Criminal defense work, by definition, involves litigation in which the government itself is the adversary. Under such circumstances nothing less than a scrupulous avoidance of all unnecessary intrusions into confidential communications by governmental agents is absolutely essential to the integrity of the lawyer-client relationship.
The United States Supreme Court has recognized that the constitutional requirements of reasonableness well might vary with the privacy expectations affected by a search. For example, a warrant “sufficient to support the search of an apartment or an automobile [would not necessarily] be reasonable in supporting the search of a newspaper office.” Zurcher v. Stanford Daily, 436 U.S. 547, 569-70, 98 S.Ct. 1970, 1983, 56 L.Ed.2d 525, 544 (1978) (Powell, J., concurring); see also Michigan v. Tyler, 436 U.S. 499, 506, 98 S.Ct. 1942, 1948, 56 L.Ed.2d 486, 496 (1978) (“[t]he showing of probable cause necessary to secure a warrant may vary with the object and intrusiveness of the search”). In Andresen v. Maryland, 427 U.S. 463, 96 S.Ct. 2737, 49 L.Ed.2d 627 (1976), the Court referred to the enhanced privacy interests attaching to private papers:
“We recognize that there are grave dangers inherent in executing a warrant authorizing a search and seizure of a person’s papers that are not necessarily present in executing a warrant to search for physical objects whose relevance is more easily ascertainable. In searches for papers, it is certain that some innocuous documents will be examined, at least cursorily, in order to determine whether they are, in fact, among those papers authorized to be seized. Similar dangers, of course, are present in executing a warrant for the ‘seizure’ of telephone conversations. In both kinds of searches, responsible officials, including judicial officials, must take care to assure that they are conducted in a manner that minimizes unwarranted intrusions on privacy.” 427 U.S. at 482, n.11, 96 S.Ct. at 2749, n.11, 49 L.Ed.2d at 643, n.11.
We recently echoed this same theme, in the specific context of the search of a lawyer’s office, in People v. Hearty, 644 P.2d 302, 313 (Colo.1982), where we stated:
“We believe that rigid adherence to the particularity requirement is appropriate where a lawyer’s office is searched for designated documents. Anything less than a strict limitation of the search and seizure to those documents particularly described in the warrant could result in a wholesale incursion into privileged communications of a highly sensitive nature. Once the privileged communication is revealed to the police, the privilege for all practical purposes has been lost.”
Because of the enhanced privacy interest which is undercut by the search of a lawyer’s office, the Supreme Court of Minnesota has held that where an attorney is not suspected of criminal wrongdoing and there is no threat that documents pertaining to a client will be destroyed, a warrant authorizing the search of a lawyer’s office is per se unreasonable and, instead, a subpoena duces tecum must be served upon the attorney. O’Connor v. Johnson, 287 N.W.2d 400 (Minn.1979). This procedure, however, entails the risk of loss or destruction of potential evidence, especially when the attorney might not be a totally blameless third par*1226ty, and for this reason I would not mandate it at this time.1 Rather, where presumptively privileged materials are sought to be seized, I believe the same policy concerns which guided our recent decision in People v. Hearty, supra, are applicable here. In my view, strict adherence to the following procedures by judges issuing search warrants will afford adequate protection to the privacy interests endangered by the search of a lawyer’s office and at the same time will accommodate the legitimate needs of law enforcement in criminal investigations.2
The warrant should describe the material sought with a heightened degree of particularity commensurate with information known to the officers at the time the warrant is sought. See People v. Hearty, supra. Greater specificity in drafting will reduce the risk that officers executing the warrant will need to examine unrelated *1227files and documents. Such catch-all or omnibus phrases as “any and all records” pertaining to a class of persons or even to a particular person simply are too broad to satisfy the constitutional requirement of particularity.3 Only where it is not possible to describe files and documents by caption, title, date or time frame, author, recipient or similar identifying characteristics, either because that information is unknown to the officers or is not present on the materials sought, should resort be had to such generic descriptions as “real estate records” or “income tax records” and, in these instances, the records must be expressly confined to a specified person and transaction.
Additionally, the issuing judge should incorporate into the face of the warrant clearly worded directions governing the execution of the search itself. If the papers sought are readily identifiable by a cursory examination of an outside folder or container, the warrant should require the executing officer to seize and seal the papers once located without any further examination of their contents. On the other hand, if the papers sought cannot be identified without examining their contents or the contents of other documents, the warrant should restrict the executing officer to such examination only as necessary to properly identify the papers as within the scope of the warrant and, when so identified, the warrant should require the officer to seize and seal the documents. The warrant should further direct that upon completion of the search a copy of the warrant and a copy of the inventory of property taken must be given to the attorney whose office was searched and, in the event the attorney is not present, copies should be left at his office. The officer executing the warrant should also be required to deposit forthwith with the issuing judge all documents seized and sealed during the execution of the warrant and to file a written inventory of all property taken during the search. See Model Code of Prearraignment Procedure § 220.5 (1975).
After execution of the warrant the court without unnecessary delay should notify the attorney whose office was searched of the seizure, and also should provide an opportunity to examine the documents and file a motion for the return of any documents on the ground that the search and seizure violated his constitutional privacy interests or those of his clients. Upon the filing of the motion for the return of documents, the court should set the matter for a hearing and permit the attorney to present evidence and argument in support of the motion. Only if the court upholds the search and seizure as constitutional should it then consider whether the seized documents might appropriately be disclosed to law enforcement authorities by reason of the crime-fraud exception. Here again, the attorney should be permitted to present evidence and argument on the applicability of the attorney-client privilege and the crime-fraud exception to the seized documents.
These procedures are necessary to adequately protect those legitimate expectations of privacy which are inherent in the *1228lawyer-client relationship and which, I believe, are entitled to enhanced protection under Article II, Section 7 of the Colorado Constitution, if not also under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
II.
Without these procedural safeguards I believe that a post-seizure adversary hearing, devoted exclusively to the application of the crime-fraud exception to the seized materials, is not by itself adequate to the task of safeguarding the constitutional right of privacy implicated by the search of a lawyer’s office. The crime-fraud exception is a rule of evidentiary admissibility which is designed for resolving whether confidential information disclosed by a client to an attorney is nonetheless subject to testimonial disclosure in the course of a judicial proceeding,4 or during the pretrial discovery phase of litigation.5 In contrast, the right to be free against an unlawful search or seizure is constitutional in origin and is designed to prevent improper investigatory tactics by eliminating the incentive for them. See generally, 1 W. LaFave, Search and Seizure § 1.1 (1978). Central to a determination of whether an unlawful seizure has occurred is whether the aggrieved party has a reasonable expectation of privacy in the area searched or the materials seized. See, e.g., Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967).
The focus of inquiry under the crime-fraud exception is not upon the constitutional significance of the manner in which the evidence was acquired, nor upon the significance of the disclosure to the underlying constitutional interests of those about to be aggrieved by the disclosure. Rather, the inquiry is limited to whether a particular communication satisfies the evidentiary features of the exception. The standards of *1229evidentiary admissibility, however, are not a proxy for constitutional rights. Evidence otherwise competent and relevant nonetheless might be subject to exclusion because of the manner in which it was acquired by governmental agents.
Being an evidentiary exception to a testimonial privilege, the crime-fraud exception simply does not address the constitutional dimensions of the problems underlying the search of a lawyer’s office. For example, the exception has no bearing on the question whether an affidavit establishes probable cause to search in the first instance. Also, the timing of the hearing, which necessarily takes place subsequent to the seizure of the documents, renders it impossible to safeguard against the indiscriminate examination of purportedly privileged documents during the search. Furthermore, the narrow evidentiary character of a hearing offers no opportunity to those aggrieved by the search to contest the truthfulness of the affidavit or the validity of the search and seizure conducted under the warrant. If the affidavit in support of the warrant fails to establish probable cause or is false, or if documents are seized in an unconstitutional manner, then any disclosure of the documents necessarily undercuts the privacy interest of those persons to whom the documents relate. Even the granting of a motion to suppress the seized evidence in the course of later proceedings is hardly an effective remedy to restore the confidentiality of those communications which long since have been disclosed to third parties. Before the application of the crime-fraud exception is ever considered by the court, those persons aggrieved by a law office search must be afforded an opportunity to raise and have resolved the constitutional propriety of the search and seizure in the first instance. Only if the search and seizure are constitutionally upheld, should an adversary hearing on the applicability of the attorney-client privilege and the crime-fraud exception come into play.
I believe that without the imposition of the previously described safeguards relating to the issuance and execution of the search warrant, and the post-seizure constitutional hearing on the propriety of the search and seizure, an adversary hearing on the crime-fraud exception, by itself, does not provide protection to the privacy interest threatened by the search of a lawyer’s office for client files. Because the documents seized in this case have already been distributed to law enforcement officers, no purpose is served by remanding the case to the district court for further proceedings and, accordingly, I concur in the affirmance of the judgment.

. In reversing a federal district court’s ruling which prohibited the issuance of search warrants against third parties and required a subpoena duces tecum as a constitutional preference, the Supreme Court in Zurcher v. Stanford Daily, 436 U.S. 547, 560-61, 98 S.Ct. 1970, 1979, 56 L.Ed.2d 525, 538-39 (1978), stated:
“In any event, the reasons presented by the District Court and adopted by the Court of Appeals for arriving at its remarkable conclusion do not withstand analysis. First, as we have said, it is apparent that whether the third-party occupant is suspect or not, the State’s interest in enforcing the criminal law and recovering the evidence remains the same; and it is the seeming innocence of the property owner that the District Court relied on to foreclose the warrant to search. But, as respondents themselves now concede, if the third party knows that contraband or other illegal materials are on his property, he is sufficiently culpable to justify the issuance of a search warrant. Similarly, if his ethical stance is the determining factor, it seems to us that whether or not he knows that the sought-after articles are secreted on his property and whether or not he knows that the articles are in fact the fruits, instrumentalities, or evidence of crime, he will be so informed when the search warrant is served, and it is doubtful that he should then be permitted to object to the search, to withhold, if it is there, the evidence of crime reasonably believed to be possessed by him or secreted on his property, and to forbid the search and insist that the officers serve him with a subpoena duces tecum.
“Second, we are unpersuaded that the District Court’s new rule denying search warrants against third parties and insisting on subpoenas would substantially further privacy interests without seriously undermining law enforcement efforts. Because of the fundamental public interest in implementing the criminal law, the search warrant, a heretofore effective and constitutionally acceptable enforcement tool, should not be suppressed on the basis of surmise and without solid evidence supporting the change. As the District Court understands it, denying third-party search warrants would not have substantial adverse effects on criminal investigations because the nonsuspect third party, once served with a subpoena, will preserve the evidence and ultimately lawfully respond. The difficulty with this assumption is that search warrants are often employed early in an investigation, perhaps before the identity of any likely criminal and certainly before all the perpetrators are or could be known. The seemingly blameless third party in possession of the fruits or evidence may not be innocent at all; and if he is, he may nevertheless be so related to or so sympathetic with the culpable that he cannot be relied upon to retain and preserve the articles that may implicate his friends, or at least not to notify those who would be damaged by the evidence that the authorities are aware of its location. In any event, it is likely that the real culprits will have access to the property, and the delay involved in employing the subpoena duces tecum, offering as it does the opportunity to litigate its validity, could easily result in the disappearance of the evidence, whatever the good faith of the third party.”

. Because those aggrieved by the search of a lawyer’s office are often third parties, I see no reason to distinguish, for purpose of the procedures described herein, between a law office search involving an attorney suspected of involvement in criminal activity and an attorney who is not.
“The mere fact that in Andresen [v. Maryland, 427 U.S. 463, 96 S.Ct. 2737, 49 L.Ed.2d 627 (1976)] and Burrows [v. Superior Court, 13 Cal.3d 238, 118 Cal.Rptr. 166, 529 P.2d 590 (1974)] both attorneys were charged with crimes creates' a distinction without a difference when we are dealing with considerations affecting privileged material. An attorney suspected of criminal activity should have the same concerns about the confidentiality of files containing privileged matter as an innocent third party attorney who allegedly possesses and controls files containing evidence of criminal conduct.” Deukmejian v. Superior Court of Los Angeles, 103 Cal.App.3d 253, 260, 162 Cal.Rptr. 857, 862 (1980).

. See United States v. Abrams, 615 F.2d 541 (1st Cir. 1980) (warrant authorizing seizure of “certain business and medical records of patients ... which show actual medical services performed and fraudulent services claimed to have been performed in a scheme to defraud the United States and to submit false medicare and medicaid claims for payments” was unconstitutionally overbroad because there was no description of specific records to be seized or the time frame to which the records pertained); In Re Lafayette Academy, 610 F.2d 1 (1st Cir. 1979) (warrant authorizing seizure of books, papers, letters, correspondence and many other types of documents from a vocational home-study school participating in federally insured student loan program, in connection with an investigation of possible fraudulent practices, was unconstitutionally overbroad because the precise nature of the investigated offenses was not delineated and no effort was made to narrow the documents by category, time period or the like); Burrows v. Superior Court of San Bernardino County, 13 Cal.3d 238, 529 P.2d 590, 118 Cal.Rptr. 166 (1975) (warrant authorizing search of attorney’s office and seizure of “all books, records, accounts and bank statements and cancelled checks of the receipt and disbursement of money and any file or documents referring to [particular clients]” was unconstitutionally overbroad because it imposed no meaningful restrictions upon the objects to be seized).

. In A v. District Court, 191 Colo. 10, 550 P.2d 315 (1976) we examined the crime-fraud exception in the context of the disclosure of subpoenaed documents to a grand jury and stated:
“The attorney-client privilege is rooted in the principle that candid and open discussion by the client to the attorney without fear of disclosure will promote the orderly administration of justice.... The criminal purpose exception to the privilege grows out of a competing value of our society which is manifested in the rule that ‘the public has the right to every man’s evidence, particularly in grand jury proceedings.’ ”
******
“We recognize that before the privilege can be ‘driven away’ there must be ‘something to give colour to the charge.’ The ‘prima facie evidence’ mentioned in Clark v. United States, 289 U.S. 1, 53 S.Ct. 465, 77 L.Ed. 993 (1932), is not tantamount to proof of a prima facie case. It means in the present situation that there must have been some foundation in fact for the charge of conspiracy to steal confidential medical records — the very matter which the grand jury was investigating— before the documents were admitted in evidence in the grand jury proceeding.” 191 Colo, at 22, 23, 550 P.2d at 324, 325 (quoting Branzburg v. Hayes, 408 U.S. 665, 92 S.Ct. 2646, 33 L.Ed.2d 626 (1972)).
In establishing standards for determining whether the crime-fraud exception applies in the context of the subpoena of assertedly privileged documents, federal courts have differed over the procedures required. Compare In Re September 1975 Grand Jury Term, 532 F.2d 734 (10th Cir. 1976) (no adversary hearing required on question of whether claim of privilege precludes grand jury examination of subpoenaed documents) with In Matter of Grand Jury Em-panelled February 14, 1978, 603 F.2d 469 (3d Cir. 1979) (attorney permitted to testify in camera on facts establishing privilege under judicially-created use immunity) and In Matter of Walsh, 623 F.2d 489 (7th Cir. 1980) cert. denied 449 U.S. 994, 101 S.Ct. 531, 66 L.Ed.2d 291 (1980) (court approved in camera proceeding where “the underlying facts demonstrating the existence of the privilege may be presented only by revealing the very information sought to be protected by the privilege”).

. Recently, in Caldwell v. District Court, Colo., 644 P.2d 26 (Colo.1982), we examined the applicability of the crime-fraud exception to material evidencing an attorney’s involvement in civil fraud, in the context of a request for production of documents in the possession of the attorney. We held that the privilege gives way where civil fraud is alleged and the proponent of the crime-fraud exception makes a showing that there is “a factual basis adequate to support a good faith belief by a reasonable person that wrongful conduct sufficient to invoke the crime or fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege has occurred.” 644 P.2d at 33. The applicability of the crime-fraud exception was relevant to the discoverability of material in Caldwell because C.R.C.P. 26(b)(1) limits discovery to matters “not privileged.”