CEO DATELINE - Company invokes attorney-client privilege with association in lawsuit
CEO DATELINE - Company invokes attorney-client privilege with association in lawsuit
- August 16, 2018 |
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Walt Williams
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The New York State attorney general's office is seeking communications between Charter Communications and NCTA—The Internet and Television Association as part of a lawsuit against the company, but lawyers for Charter say those communications fall under attorney-client privilege, the New York Law Journal reported Tuesday.
New York State Attorney General Barbara Underwood sued Charter in 2017 for allegedly promising customers internet speeds the company could not deliver. The office has sought communications between Charter and NCTA as part of its case, and Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Peter Sherwood ruled in June that the company needed to turn over the documents.
Charter's attorneys are withholding some of the documents because they involve communications between counsel representing NCTA and the company's in-house attorneys, allegedly about legal strategy surrounding federal "net neutrality" rules implemented during the Obama administration, according to the New York Law Journal.
Because both retained counsel to advise them on "matters of common legal interest," the communications fall under attorney-client privilege, Charter's attorneys said. They also noted they have turned over hundreds of documents involving the company and the association that did not meet such protections.
An attorney with the attorney general's office responded that the documents in question were not privileged because they concerned lobbying activity and not pending litigation, and that the communications were important in the case the state was making against Charter. The office also is seeking communications between Charter and Comcast about their failed merger.
Charter's attorneys are next scheduled to appear in court Sept. 11. http://bit.ly/2KUAfg4
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