Chapter 42 - § 42.20 • WAIVER

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 42.20 • WAIVER

When a person offers himself or herself as a witness, he or she is deemed to have consented to being examined, and by testifying about the privileged matter, or by the offer, by the beneficiary of a privilege, of a witness whose testimony is privileged, he or she is deemed to have waived the privilege.¹⁵⁰

A corporation's trustee in bankruptcy may waive the attorney- and accountant-client privilege.¹⁵¹ The privilege as to the plaintiff's own physician is waived by calling other physicians to testify regarding the injuries.¹⁵² It has been held that if a discovery proceeding has been instituted by the decedent or his or her representative, requiring a disqualified witness to testify, the representative may have lost the right to invoke the statute.¹⁵³

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Notes:

^[150] C.R.S. § 13-90-108; Nelson v. Grissom, 382 P.2d 991 (Colo. 1963); Mauro v. Tracy, 380 P.2d 570 (Colo. 1963).

^[151] Weck v. District Court, 422 P.2d 46 (Colo. 1967).

^[152] Kelley v. Holmes, 470 P.2d 590 (Colo. App. 1970).

^[153] Annot. 35 A.L.R.3d 955.