Coito v. Superior Court

After a teenager drowned and six juveniles witnessed it, the State's attorneys prepared a list of questions used by investigators to interview four witnesses, recording the interviews' audio; in the wrongful-death suit brought by the boy's mother, Coito (plaintiff), against the State and City of Modesto (defendants), Coito sought the names of everyone who gave statements and the audio recordings themselves, and the State objected based on attorney work-product privilege. The trial court denied Coito's motion to compel without reviewing the recordings, the Court of Appeal reversed and held the privilege categorically inapplicable, and the State sought review.