Defense’s Privilege Objections Found Unpersuasive, But A Request for Appeal Sanctions Was Denied.
The lower court in Romero v. Gopher Media LLC, Case No. D086508 (4th Dist., Div. 1 Aug. 5, 2026) (unpublished) imposed $7,870.41 in discovery sanctions on defendants for failing to produce a crucial meeting summary used to justify plaintiff’s employment termination in original format with metadata. It found that the privilege objections were not well-founded. The appellate court affirmed, because the defense failed to provide facts to show any protected communications were involved, not to mention that defense counsel at the discovery law-and-motion hearing professed ignorance about metadata—contradicting her own declaration that the metadata contained confidential client communications. The lower court impliedly rejected the argument that defendants’ objections were substantially justified. However, appeal sanctions were denied, reserved only for the most egregious conduct rather than simply bringing an unmeritorious appeal.