/>iJohnson v. Department of Transp., 2025 WL 829714 (Cal. Ct. App. 2025)
After Christian L. Johnson sued his employer (Caltrans), an attorney for Caltrans sent a confidential email about the litigation to Nicholas Duncan (Johnson’s supervisor). Duncan then sent an image of the email to Johnson who shared it with his attorney and several retained experts and other individuals. The trial court granted Caltrans’s request for a protective order on the ground that the email was covered by the attorney-client privilege. The trial court also ordered Johnson and his attorney to destroy or return all copies of the email and to refrain from any further dissemination of the email. The trial court subsequently granted Caltrans’s motion to disqualify Johnson’s attorney and retained experts with whom the email had been shared based upon various violations of the protective order. The Court of Appeal affirmed the order. See also Cahill v. Insider Inc., 2025 WL 838264 (9th Cir. 2025) (district court had authority to order media organizations to return or destroy confidential documents that had been inadvertently disclosed).
