Harding Lawson Associates v. Superior Court

Petitioners challenge a discovery order requiring production of numerous documents, some from personnel files of petitioners’ employees. We conclude that the order is too broad and unjustifiably intrudes into privacy rights of employees. We direct the issuance of a writ of mandate.

The action below was brought by real party in interest Pamela Bailey, who contends that petitioners Harding Lawson Associates and Harding Associates, Inc. (Harding Lawson, hereafter) wrongfully discharged her from employment. She claims that she was reassigned and then discharged because she refused to insert false and misleading information in bid documents she prepared for Harding Lawson and because she complained about being pressured to do so. Bailey asserts that Harding Lawson falsely represented that economic circumstances compelled her discharge, when in fact Harding Lawson retained and gave pay raises to less skilled and less experienced employees trained by Bailey.

In addition to deposing various Harding Lawson employees, Bailey submitted four document requests, asking Harding Lawson to produce documents in at least 120 categories. Harding Lawson objected to many of the requests. On…