The out-of-county judge presiding over the First Judicial District’s legal malpractice lawsuit over the Philadelphia family courthouse project said in an order Monday that the first Supreme Court justice to preside over the initiative is not entitled to a protective order from having to give a deposition.
Sandra Schultz Newman, who was the liaison justice to the FJD and ultimately in charge of the project until her retirement from the court at the end of 2006, argued that the documents and testimony sought by the FJD are protected by Pennsylvania’s deliberative process privilege, Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. said in his court order. The deliberative process protects candid discussions between an agency’s decision-maker and the employees or other agents of the agency.
