Privilege Allowed For A Litigation Support Specialist

A federal court ruled that a woman who worked under the general counsel of a collection agency as a “litigation support specialist” was protected by privilege. In a putative class action filed under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the plaintiff had sought the testimony of the litigation support specialist after the specialist had communicated with her regarding a possible settlement and done some other work on the case. This post explains why the court treated the specialist “as the General Counsel’s agent for privilege purposes, and used the Shelton doctrine to preclude her deposition testimony.”