PATRICIA ROUSH, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY, LLC, et al., Defendants and Respondents. , 150 Cal. App. 4th 210

Summary

The employee asserted that the employer's counsel obtained her confidential information when another employee, who was a plaintiff in a separate case against the employer, settled his suit and agreed to share what he knew about her case as part of his settlement agreement. According to the employee, she had shared confidential information with the other employee when the two were both clients of her present counsel. The court found no error in the trial court's decision not to exercise its authority under Code Civ. Proc., § 128, subd. (5), to disqualify counsel because the employee did not show that she and the other employee were joint clients within the meaning of Evid. Code, § 962, or that sharing information with him was reasonably necessary to her case as indicated in Evid. Code, §§ 952, 912, subd. (d). Thus, in seeking disqualification on the ground that the employer's counsel obtained information from the other employee, she did not carry her burden to show that the other ...