Mawulawde v. Bd. of Regents of the Univ. Sys. of Ga.

PEER REVIEW PRIVILEGE
Mawulawde v. Bd. of Regents
of the Univ. Sys. of Ga.(S.D. Ga. Feb. 7, 2008)

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia reopened
a case that had been put on hold while the United States Supreme Court heard
the appeal of a case that raised similar issues (discovery of peer review materials).
The Supreme Court denied certiorari in that case, thus upholding an
Eleventh Circuit decision permitting the discovery of peer review materials
during the course of certain lawsuits, such as this suit brought by a physician,
Dr. Mawulawde, against the Board of Regents of the University System of
Georgia ("Board of Regents"). In response to the physician’s motion
to compel records for discovery, the Board of Regents provided 25,000 pages
of peer review documents for the physician’s inspection in a conference room
and asked that the physician "flag" those documents he wished to
have photocopied. The physician argued that he should not have to disclose
which documents he wished to have photocopied, since that disclosure could
be categorized as "the highly-protected category of opinion work product." The
district court disagreed and concluded that the Board of Regents’ request was
reasonable and did not "impose an undue burden nor in any way prejudice
[the physician’s] ability to conduct meaningful discovery."