Interviewing Witnesses As An Adjustor: Don't Invite Everyone!

This case highlights the importance of exercising care when inviting parties to an witness interview. Broad invites can lead to unintended waiver of litigation privilege over interview transcripts. In relation to a building fire for which they were the insurer, Lloyd's Underwriters successfully compelled a witness transcript from CTA, who unsuccessfully argued that the transcript was protected by litigation and common interest privilege. The Court found that privilege did not apply because the parties attending the interview had adverse interests and the majority did not attend primarily for litigation purposes.