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HERE THE OFFICE OF COURT ADMINISTRATION’S (OCA’S) BLANKET ASSERTION OF THE ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGE RE: THE FOIL REQUEST FOR COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN OCA AND JUDGES WAS REJECTED; ALTHOUGH UPON REMAND THE PRIVILEGE MAY BE SHOWN TO APPLY TO INIDVIDUAL, IDENTIFIED DOCUMENTS, THE OCA DID NOT ESTABLISH AN ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP WITH ALL THE JUDGES SUCH THAT A BLANKET ASSERTION OF THE PRIVILEGE WAS APPROPRIATE (CT APP).

The Court of Appeals, reversing the Appellate Division, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Halligan, over a dissenting opinion, determined that the Office of Court Administration (OCA) was not entitled to a blanket assertion of attorney-client privilege in response to a FOIL request by the NY Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) that followed the leak of a 2021 internal OCA memorandum proposing a narrow reading of a recent court decisions which was widely distributed to judges:

… “[W]hether a particular document is or is not protected is necessarily a fact-specific determination, most often requiring in camera review” … . Without having identified or produced any documents for in camera review, OCA cannot assert a blanket privilege over the entire universe of potentially responsive documents. In reaching this conclusion, we do not suggest that Counsel’s Office could never establish such a relationship. But we decline to recognize the sweeping, ex ante privilege that OCA claims here.

We hold that OCA has failed to meet its preliminary burden of establishing an attorney-client relationship with all UCS judges. Should OCA continue to assert this privilege over any specific documents identified in response to the limited request upon which the parties have now agreed, the court on remittal should assess whether such documents fall within the asserted exemption, including by in camera review as necessary … . Matter of New York Civ. Liberties Union v New York State Off. of Ct. Admin., 2025 NY Slip Op 05784, CtApp 10-21-25

Practice Point: Here, in this FOIL case, the blanket assertion of the attorney-client privilege for communications between the Office of Court Administration (OCA) and all judges was rejected. Whether the privilege applies must be assessed in the context of a review of the individual documents identified in the request.

 

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