Attorney-Client Privilege Lasts Forever — What About Work Product Protection?

Attorney-client privilege protection lasts forever, but determining work product doctrine protection's duration presents a more subtle analysis. Most courts protect work product if it is sought in later litigation related in some way to the litigation for which it was created. These opinions reflect a wide spectrum of the relationship that will immunize work product from later discovery ("related," "closely related," etc.). As a practical matter, this "relatedness" requirement amounts to lasting protection — because presumably no one would want such work product in a totally unrelated case.

But nearly every court views a specific type of discovery very differently. In Glass v. Village of Maywood, Case No. 22 CV 164, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 179074 (N.D. Ill. Oct. 4, 2023), a criminal defendant acquitted of illegal firearm possession sued the defendant Village for malicious prosecution. Acknowledging a 2006 Seventh Circuit Court case stating that generally work