In re Vioxx Products Liability Litigation
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
501 F. Supp. 2d 789 (2007)
Relevant factsFree
Merck (defendant), sued by thousands of individual and class-action plaintiffs over its drug Vioxx, produced over two million documents during litigation but withheld roughly 30,000 more, claiming attorney-client privilege over communications between Merck employees and Merck's in-house counsel. The court appointed a special master to review a representative sample of the withheld documents and recommend whether the privilege claim should hold up.
IssueFree
Whether attorney-client privilege protects communications between in-house counsel and company employees only when the communication is made primarily for the purpose of providing legal services.