Plaintiff Civil Rights Department (CRD) is investigating whether defendant City of Torrance (Torrance or the City) has violated Government Code section 12952, the Fair Chance Act, which restricts the circumstances in which an employer may decline to hire a prospective employee due to the employee’s criminal record. When responding to CRD about a job applicant’s complaint concerning the City’s adherence to the Fair Chance Act, Torrance provided CRD with a narrative explanation of the City’s purported compliance. When CRD later instituted administrative proceedings against Torrance involving that applicant and others, the City withheld documents responsive to CRD’s discovery requests on the ground that the documents underlying the City’s narrative explanation, which included individualized assessments of prospective employees and forms for creating such assessments, were protected by attorney-client and work product privilege.
CRD sought relief in superior court, and the court granted CRD’s motion to compel on the ground that Torrance waived any claim of privilege by describing its compliance with the law as a defense to CRD’s claims. We find no abuse of discretion and affirm.
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