Accepted Answer

Hello Again Tact Adv. Thanks for your patience and your additional information. Overall, after reviewing all of your information here and the law of Nevada regarding discovery (and LLP's) I just do not feel that they have a leg to stand on regarding a number of things.

First, as far as a lawsuit being filed for libel/defamation, etc., -- you are absolutely correct in that the emails were private exchanges and are statements of personal opinion -- there is nothing actionable there (which does not mean that they will not try--in which case you would have to hire a lawyer to request that any such suit be thrown out of court on a motion to dismiss). I was researching whether or not your having a business relationship with the parties invovled may have made a difference (sort of an "insider's" free speech restriction, if you will -- and I have found nothing to indicate that you should have any conerns on that front). For this, I am assuming that you could not be found to be an "expert" or an "expert witness" to this case -- eg, in order to be considered an "expert" in this overall case, you would hve to have broad inside knowledge of the LLP's financial dealings, so that your opinion would be regarded as one of the major points of the lawsuit. You would have to be the company's in-house long-term accountant or CEO or some such in order to qualify as an "expert" here. Based on the facts you have given me, you are simply an employee (or independent contractor) voicing opinions regarding how the company was run and why it may have been moved to Nevada.

Why they even want your emails in this lawsuit is puzzling -- unless, as you said, they are hoping that it leads to other discoverable information. Your emails are simply personal opinion and may even be termed "good gossip" but do not seem to arise to anything they could actually use in court. Unless, as I said earlier, your involvement in this whole thing elevates you to the level of an "expert" on the LLP -- they would have to bring you in to testify so that you can "authenticate" the emails to the court ("yes, I wrote them") and then they would have to offer the contents of the emails up as evidence. And the court will ask "What are these evidence of, counselor?" -- and the judge will determine that the emails are your personal opinion and, unless you are qualified by the court as an "expert" witness -- your opinion DOES NOT matter. Only the opinions of expert witnesses matter. The judge will probably not even permit them to be entered into evidence.

You could be pro-active here and hire an attorney to file a motion to squash the release of the emails -- but as the LP's attorney said, it might be fruitless. I am sure you can successfully show the court that you are not an expert witness and the emails will more likely than not be inadmissible -- but it is the potential of your emails to lead them to other discoverable evidence that they will use in any such motion. Discovery rules are very loose -- but just because it is discoverable now, however, does not mean that something will be ultimately admissible in court later.

I think you should give them what they request and continue to maintain that the emails are full of personal opinion and gossip and really are not relevant to the overall lawsuit, but maintian the attitude "if you want them you can have them".   

Then, do yourself a favor -- be much more careful in the future what you write in emails, what you say in voicemails and what you do in videotapes! All of these things can be used against you when you least expect it.

Good Luck. Let me know if you have any follow up questions. Again -- I apologize it took so long, but I wanted to look at Nevada discovery rules, LLP rules, etc. before I finished the asnwer.

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Expert:	Mary Meaden Esq
Pos. Feedback:	99.6 %
Accepts:
Answered:	9/5/2009

Attorney

12 years experience in general law: RE, Consumer Prot., Family, Wills & Estates, Emplymnt, Crim Law