Korea Data Systems Co. v. Superior Court

In response to a motion to compel, the trial court ordered petitioner to produce documents allegedly subject to the attorney-client privilege. The order was based on the court’s finding that failure to file a timely privilege log, waived the privilege. Petitioners filed a petition for writ of mandate seeking to reverse the order. We issued an alternative writ and now grant the petition, holding that a forced waiver of the attorney-client privilege is not an authorized sanction for failure to file a privilege log.

Facts

Petitioners, Korea Data Systems Company Ltd. and others (collectively KDS), sued Aamazing Technologies Corporation and others (collectively, Aamazing) for breach of contract. Aamazing served KDS with a request for production of documents. KDS served a timely but nonspecific response, which included “. . . general objections based upon the attomey/client privilege and the work product doctrine.” Subsequently, KDS filed a supplemental response consisting of specific responses to each request; these responses again included objections based on the attorney-client privilege. Still later, KDS served a second supplemental response to the request for production,…