Lieberman v. Att’y Gen.

Lieberman v. Att’y Gen.,
No. 222143 (Mich. App. Mar. 8, 2002)

The
Court of Appeals of Michigan held that a hospital’s peer review documents were
privileged from discovery pursuant to a search warrant in a criminal investigation.
Despite the Attorney General’s arguments that the peer review statute forbade
discovery only through subpoena and not search warrants, the court found that
the legislature intended the peer review privilege to apply broadly and to create
a comprehensive ban on the disclosure of peer review materials. According to
the court: "Because the Legislature protected peer-review documents in
broad terms, the public policy argument must be resolved in favor of confidentiality."