6-1 Introduction

• Jurisdiction: United States

6-1 Introduction

Communications between Florida attorneys and clients normally are not discover-able.¹ In a legal malpractice case, however, communications between the former client and the former lawyer regarding the underlying representation are not privileged. Communications between the former client and other lawyers remain off-limits, even if the former lawyer insists they are needed for his or her defense.²

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Notes:

^[1] Coffey-Garcia v. South Miami Hosp., Inc., 194 So. 3d 533 (Fla. 3d Dist. Ct. App. 2016); Finn Law Grp., P.A. v. Orange Lake Country Club, Inc., 206 So. 3d 169 (Fla. 5th Dist. Ct. App. 2016); Ira Scot Silverstein, LLC v. Kube, 225 So. 3d 955 (Fla. 3d Dist. Ct. App. 2017). Of course, documents not related to any pending claim or defense, or that are not reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence, also are protected. Richard Mul-holland and Assocs. v. Polverari, 698 So. 2d 1269 (Fla. 2d Dist. Ct. App. 1997).

^[2] Similarly, the filing of a legal malpractice action does not allow a physician to disclose information about a patient, even when the patient's treatment is at the core of the legal malpractice case. Paylan v. Fitzgerald, 223 So. 3d 431 (Fla. 2d Dist. Ct. App. 2017).