Jeffrey and Virginia M. Hambarian - Page 7




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          work product privilege is intended to protect documents that                
          reveal an attorney’s mental impressions and legal theories and              
          that were prepared in contemplation of litigation.  Id. at 509-             
          510.  The Supreme Court, in holding that certain documents were             
          privileged, explained:                                                      
               Proper preparation of a client’s case demands that * *                 
               * [an attorney] assemble information, sift what he                     
               considers to be the relevant from the irrelevant facts,                
               prepare his legal theories and plan his strategy                       
               without undue and needless interference.  * * * This                   
               work is reflected, of course, in interviews,                           
               statements, memoranda, correspondence, briefs, mental                  
               impressions, personal beliefs, and countless other                     
               tangible and intangible ways * * *                                     
          Id. at 511.                                                                 
               There is no doubt that the documents compiled by the                   
          prosecuting and defense attorneys were organized in contemplation           
          of litigation.  With respect to the 10,000 Bates numbered pages             
          received from the prosecuting attorney by petitioner’s defense              
          attorney, there is no need to protect them, even if they did                
          reflect the prosecuting attorney’s mental impressions.  Any                 
          privilege that may have attached to the 10,000 pages when they              
          were compiled by the prosecuting attorney was abandoned when the            
          documents were turned over or disclosed to petitioner’s defense             
          attorney.4                                                                  



               4 If petitioner’s defense attorney had placed notations on             
          the documents that constitute work product, those notations may             
          be excised to the extent that petitioners can show that such                
          notations are privileged.                                                   





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