A recent bench ruling from the Court of Chancery granted a motion to compel production of documents improperly withheld as privileged–and in the process ordered that privilege was waived due to the deficient preparation of the privilege log.  See Mountain West Series of Lockton Companies, LLC v. Alliant Insurance Services, Inc., C.A. No. 2019-0226-JTL (transcript) (Del. Ch. May 17, 2019).

A number of prior Chancery decisions highlighted on these pages have held that asserted privileges have been waived due to the deficient nature of the privilege log prepared.  In this case, the court adopted the arguments in the 14-page motion to compel which is provided at this hyperlink, made available in The Chancery Daily edition of Friday, May 24, 2019. Also note the reply at this hyperlink, filed after the response to the motion, made available by The Chancery Daily in its edition of May 24, 2019.

The motion also featured the vexing and unfavored practice of “dribbling” production of documents–after the deadline  for production, and with no clarification about when the final production will be complete–without asking for an extension. See footnote 6 in Motion to Compel linked above.