215 W. Va. 705 - STATE EX REL. ALLSTATE v. Madden’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

20 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “In order to assert an attorney-client privilege, three main elements must be present: (1) both parties must contemplate that the attorney-client relationship does or will exist; (2) the advice must be sought by the client from that attorney in his capacity as a legal adviser; (3) the commu nication between the attorney and client must be identified to be confidential.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State ex rel. Erie Insurance Property & Casualty Co. v. Mazzone · 233 W. Va. 258 - SER Montpelier US Insurance Co. v. Hon. Louis H. Bloom, Judge

2. “[W]e reiterate the tenets of Zolin set forth above and hold that to establish the application of the crime-fraud exception, a party must demonstrate an adequate factual basis exists to support a reasonable person’s good faith belief that an in camera review of the privileged materials would produce evidence to render the exception applicable. In making this prima facie showing, the party must rely on nonprivileged evidence, unless the court has not previously made a preliminary determination on the matter of privilege, in which case the allegedly privileged materials may also be considered. * * * The crime-fraud exception operates to compel disclosure of otherwise privileged materials only when the evidence establishes that the client intended to perpetrate a crime or fraud and that the confidential communications between the attorney and client were made in furtherance of such crime or fraud.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Mt. Hawley Insurance v. Felman Production, Inc.

3. “`In clear language, Rule 26 of the West Virginia Rules of Civil Procedure provides that privileged matters, although relevant, are not discoverable. As a result of this rule, many documents that could very substantially aid a litigant in a lawsuit are neither discoverable nor admissible as evidence. In determining what privileges or protections are applicable, we are obligated to look both at the rules themselves and to our statutory and common law.' Syllabus point 12, SER Medical Assurance of West Virginia, Inc. v. Recht, 213 W.Va. 457 , 583 S.E.2d 80 (2003).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. STATE EX REL. NAT. MUT. v. Marks