Newark Unified School District v. Superior Court of Alameda County

— Current real party in interest Elizabeth Brazil and former real parties in interest Jennifer Snyder, Newark Advocates for Change, and Newark Citizens for Change requested documents under the California Public Records Act (Gov. Code, 1 § 6250 et seq.; PRA) from petitioner Newark Unified School District (District). When the District delivered documents in response to the requests, it inadvertently included over 100 documents that, the District contends, are subject to the attorney-client or attorney work product privileges. Within hours of the release, the District’s interim superintendent discovered the error and sent e-mails to the recipients asking for return of the documents. Snyder and Brazil refused. Snyder, an attorney, cited section 6254.5 in contending the District’s inadvertent release had waived the privileges. Under that statute, the disclosure of a document to the public waives any claim by an agency that the document is exempt from release under the PRA.

The District filed an action against real parties in interest seeking return or destruction of the privileged documents. The trial court initially granted a temporary restraining order preventing their…