No Privilege or Privacy for the Anonymous Patient

Snibbe v. Superior Court, No. B252210 (D2d4 Feb. 27, 2014)

In a wrongful death case, the court of appeal partially grants a writ somewhat narrowing the scope of permissible discovery of an allegedly negligent surgeon’s files concerning his treatment of other patients. But it largely sides in plaintiff's favor by declining to reverse the whole order. In doing so, the court suggests that third party privacy and physical-patient privilege concerns can be completely obviated so long as the discovery requests permit the information to be effectively anonymized.