18 1979 Hughes’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 district · 2 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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[T]he work product doctrine applies to criminal, as well as civil litigation. Moreover, as the [Supreme] Court in Nobles observed: “[T]he doctrine is an intensely practical one, grounded in the realities of litigation in our adversary system. One of those realities is that attorneys often must rely on the assistance of investigators and other agents in the compilation of materials in preparation for trial. It is therefore necessary that the doctrine protect material prepared by agents for the attorney as well as those prepared by the attorney himself.” ... [T]he doctrine applies to material prepared or collected in advance of litigation. It is not disputed that [Doe] represents a grand jury target likely to be indicted. ... The governing rule in these circumstances is that the possessor of the claimed privilege or right may intervene to assert it—”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 685 F. Supp. 49 - In Re a Grand Jury Subpoena Duces Tecum Dated February 18, 1988

2. “[w]e may not presume that attorneys or their agents routinely engage in such [intolerable] activities. The speculative possibility that they might cannot justify endangering protected work product by bringing them before a grand jury. Moreover, when the examination of an attorney’s agent with respect to the inquiries he has carried out in that capacity is sought on the ground that the agent, or the attorney, may have engaged in misconduct, something more is required to substantiate the reasonableness of the government’s assertions than an ex parte affidavit.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 685 F. Supp. 49 - In Re a Grand Jury Subpoena Duces Tecum Dated February 18, 1988

3. “In this case, the list of interviewees is just that, a list. It does not directly or indirectly reveal the mental processes of the ... attorneys. It furnishes no information as to the content of any statement. There is no realistic possibility that its production will convert any member of the [attorney-client team] from advocate to witness. None of the policy reasons for protection of work product, other than the fact of its initial compilation ..., applies.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Alexander v. Federal Bureau of Investigation