{"id":905544,"date":"2026-04-08T15:30:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T21:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=905544"},"modified":"2026-04-08T15:30:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T21:30:36","slug":"pro-se-litigant-misses-work-product-argument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/pro-se-litigant-misses-work-product-argument\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro Se Litigant Misses Work Product Argument, and Court Opinion Misses Work Product Argument: Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Thomas Spahn | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/client-resources\/privilege-ethics\/privilege-points\/2026\/4\/pro-se-litigant-misses-work-product-argument-and-court-opinion-misses-work-product-argument-part-ii\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">McGuireWoods<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last week\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/client-resources\/privilege-ethics\/privilege-points\/2026\/3\/pro-se-litigant-misses-work-product-argument-and-court-opinion-misses-work-product-argument-part-i\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Privilege Point<\/a>\u00a0described a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/sactions-against-pro-se-plaintiff-upheld\/\">pro se<\/a> litigant\u2019s losing evidentiary protection argument based solely on the narrow attorney-client privilege, rather than on the broader and presumably applicable work product protection.\u00a0<em>Kachele<\/em>\u00a0<em>v. El-Maasri<\/em>, Case No. 25-cv-3458-AGS-MMP, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15935 (S.D. Cal. Jan. 28, 2026).<br><br>Two weeks earlier, a federal court assessed opinion work product protection for an insurance company\u2019s investigation files.\u00a0<em>Gurner v. American Family Mutual Insurance Co.<\/em>, Case No. 3:24-cv-00158-MMD-CSD, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7944 (D. Nev. Jan. 15, 2026). The court examined whether \u201cthe claims log\/notes were prepared under the direction of an attorney.\u201d\u00a0<em>Id.<\/em>\u00a0at *9. That was understandable since a lawyer\u2019s involvement would be helpful in determining whether the documents\u2019 creation was motivated by anticipated litigation rather than ordinary insurance company business considerations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the court also described the more highly protected \u201c[o]pinion work product\u201d as \u201can attorney\u2019s mental impressions, conclusions, opinions, or legal theories.\u201d&nbsp;<em>Id.<\/em>&nbsp;at *7. Courts that limit the heightened \u201copinion\u201d work product definition just to lawyers\u2019 documents ignore Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(b)(3)(B)\u2019s explicit extension of that valuable protection to \u201cthe mental impressions, conclusions, opinions, or legal theories of a party\u2019s attorney&nbsp;<em>or other representative<\/em>&nbsp;concerning the litigation\u201d (emphasis added).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When one of your cases is in need of a construction expert, estimates, insurance appraisal or umpire services in defect or insurance disputes &#8211; please call Advise &amp; Consult, Inc. at 801.641.8304, or email <a href=\"mailto:experts@adviseandconsult.net\">experts@adviseandconsult.net<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thomas Spahn | McGuireWoods Last week\u2019s\u00a0Privilege Point\u00a0described a pro se litigant\u2019s losing evidentiary protection argument based solely on the narrow attorney-client privilege, rather than on the broader and presumably applicable work product protection.\u00a0Kachele\u00a0v. El-Maasri, Case No. 25-cv-3458-AGS-MMP, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15935 (S.D. Cal. Jan. 28, 2026). Two weeks earlier, a federal court assessed opinion&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/pro-se-litigant-misses-work-product-argument\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Pro Se Litigant Misses Work Product Argument, and Court Opinion Misses Work Product Argument: Part II<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[172],"tags":[9895,27,12303],"class_list":["post-905544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-law-2","tag-advise-consult","tag-construction-law","tag-pro-se","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pro Se Litigant Misses Work Product Argument, and Court Opinion Misses Work Product Argument: Part II - Advise &amp; 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