Insights
Discussing a recent ruling that information obtained by an outside auditor is open to discovery, Jonathan Handler tells Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, "If you use an outside expert, or something someone in your company does, in order to make a claim, assume all of that is going to come out." He went on to say that in cases such as this, "The issue is whether the client is engaged in the regular course of business or something in anticipation of litigation. That’s a difficult line." The judge in Columbia Data Products, Inc. v. Autonomy Corporation Limited, et al. ruled that even though the plaintiff's intent at the time of the audit was only to obtain information for business purposes, and as such the information is not immune to discovery. The article, "Auditor's report discoverable," appeared in the December 27 edition.
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