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Legal, Laws, and Regs

Who keeps e-mails?

fishing expedition

If you’re following the BPI vs. ABC “pinkslime” lawsuit, than you might be aware that the company is attempting to subpoena emails from several journalists and food safety experts.

The subpoenas to Food Safety News reporters are a bit tricky, because the publisher for the online site is Bill Marler, who is providing pro bono legal defense for the two former USDA workers who are also being sued in this lawsuit. I’m not a lawyer, but this means attorney-client privilege to me. I’m surprised that the Judge would allow such a fishing expedition so close to this privilege, but maybe this is the way they do things in South Dakota’s courts.

Michele Simon responded to the subpoena, but as she noted, she doesn’t keep emails. Come to think of it, I don’t keep emails, either. Nowadays, when you have corporations shotgunning subpoenas under indifferent judicial eyes, perhaps none of us should keep emails. Not unless we primarily write about cats or JavaScript. Or the latest squabble between the WhatWG and the W3C HTML working groups (because no one would ever want any of these emails).

If BPI, Inc doesn’t have what it needs to to win its case, or can’t get it from those directly involved in the lawsuit, maybe it should focus on how to explain away both the pinkness and the slimy feel of its product when the defendant lawyers bring a mess in for the jury to fondle. And spend some time contemplating the fact that, yes, people in this country really do want to know what’s in the food we’re eating.

Update: ABC has also covered the subpoena story. Must have been a bit cathartic for them.

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