Court: City Waived Privilege on Fair Chance Act Assessment

California court rules City of Torrance waived privilege over Fair Chance Act assessment documents.

In Civil Rights Department v. City of Torrance, the California Court of Appeal affirmed a lower court's decision that the City of Torrance waived attorney-client and work product privileges related to Fair Chance Act assessments. The dispute arose after Torrance rescinded a conditional job offer to an applicant based on criminal history, prompting an investigation by the Civil Rights Department (CRD) under California's Fair Chance Act (Government Code section 12952).

Torrance refused to produce documents concerning individualized assessments, claiming they were protected by privilege because counsel assisted in their preparation. However, by asserting statutory compliance as a defense, the city "necessarily placed the adequacy of those assessments at issue," the court said. This meant privilege was waived because the assessment quality became a central element of the legal dispute.

The ruling highlights that employers and municipalities cannot use attorney-client privilege to shield documents when they rely on those documents to prove compliance with laws like the Fair Chance Act. The court cautioned that allowing privilege in such contexts would enable employers to avoid proper review obligations related to criminal history records.

This decision clarifies the scope of privilege protections in the context of legal counsel-assisted government assessments and sets precedent for transparency in employment compliance litigation.