A court recently ordered a Title VII plaintiff to produce a handwritten chronology of events that she prepared and gave to her lawyer before she filed a lawsuit. Woodward v. Avondale Indus., Inc., No. 99-2771 Section “G” (2), 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5419, at *3 n.1 (E.D. La. Apr. 14, 2000).
The court noted that the chronology included only factual statements (which would not be privileged in any event) and also pointed out that the plaintiff testified that she relied on her chronology to develop her EEOC affidavit—thus voluntarily waiving the privilege by disclosing the chronology’s contents in the affidavit.
Defense lawyers should be aware of decisions like this when seeking discovery from Title VII and other plaintiffs.