Revisiting a case that it first addressed in narrower terms, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reiterated that the standard to be met in order to use the crime-fraud exception to override attorney-client privilege and the work-product doctrine is whether there is a reasonable basis to do so.
Other circuits have applied different standards, a split panel of the Third Circuit said in an opinion it issued after vacating the opinion it issued in the same case in May. The court had granted rehearing this summer at the request of an unnamed corporation, called ABC Corp., that is under investigation by a grand jury for a complex tax fraud scheme. The government is seeking documents that the company, and its father-and-son executives, maintain were privileged.
