Question

A forensic accountant prepared a summary of deposits and withdrawals from a fraud suspect’s bank account for use in a trial; the attorney subsequently made some revisions to the summary. This summary would be protected from the discovery process according to what kind of privilege?  

a)	Attorney-client privilege

b)	Accountant-client privilege

c)	Attorney work product privilege

d)	Accountant work product privilege

Answer 1

Ans. C) Attorney work product privilege.

The work product doctrine states that an adverse party generally may not discover or compel disclosure of written or oral materials prepared by or for an attorney in the course of legal representation, especially in preparation for litigation. However, under Rule 26(b)(3) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, an adverse party may discover or compel disclosure of work product upon a showing of "substantial need" and "undue hardship."

Therefore, this summary would be protected from discovery process according to Attorney work product privilege.