The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled that a hospital embroiled in litigation with one of its former doctors may not have waived its protection under the attorney work-product doctrine by forwarding emails from its counsel to an outside public relations firm.

In reversing a ruling by a three-judge Superior Court panel that had deemed the emails discoverable, the justices in BouSamra v. Excela Health remanded the case to the trial court with directions to engage in “fact finding and application of the newly articulated work product waiver analysis.”