Judge Orders Google to Deliver Random Sample of Privileged Emails

Google will produce a random sample of attorney-privileged emails by April 19 so the U.S. District Court in Washington can decide whether to compel disclosure of all such emails (see 2204070065), Judge Amit Mehta ordered Tuesday in docket 1:20-cv-03010. DOJ claimed Google has been hiding emails in its antitrust case by using flimsy attorney-privilege labels, which Google denied. Mehta ordered the company to produce a random sample of 210 “silent attorney” emails, or about 1% of the 21,000 emails fitting Google’s description. The company was ordered to deliver a “spreadsheet with privilege log entries as they pertain to that sample of emails.”