Alford v. San Diego Superior Court (August 8, 2001)
* We previously reported upon this appellate court decision
in our June report to you. In
a nutshell, the appellate court in Alford had held that
the difficulty of fashioning an effective protective order should not be
considered in ruling on a Pitchess motion.
*The latest development in this case is that the
California Supreme Court has granted review.
This means that the court will reconsider the appellate court
decision. One issue that
the court says it will consider is whether information disclosed in one
case pursuant to a Pitchess can be used in a second case.
This is an important issue.
The court will probably not issue a decision until next year.
