Estate of Hohler v. Hohler, 2011 Ohio 5469

Estate of Richard Hohler appeals a probate discovery ruling involving the decedent's legal file and work-product privilege in a dispute over a prenuptial agreement with Roxanne Hohler.
Prenuptial agreement was prepared by Day Ketterer; decedent and Hohler married 13 days after signing.
Decedent died September 8, 2008; will left nothing to Hohler and she elected against the will.
Hohler subpoenaed the decedent's file; estate asserted attorney-client privilege and work-product privilege as to the files.
This court previously held surviving-spouse waiver of attorney-client privilege is allowed; work product may be discoverable under a good-cause exception and remanded for in-camera review.
On remand, trial court identified seven items; held items 1-3 not work product; items 4-7 largely discoverable; later this court affirmed in part and reversed in part.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether ordinary work product disclosure requires good cause	Estate argues disclosure of ordinary work product was improper without good cause.	Hohler contends the court properly balanced discovery under the good-cause standard.	Trial court did not abuse; ordinary work product disclosures upheld except for one improper item.
Whether opinion work product disclosure requires good cause	Estate maintains good cause supports disclosure of opinion work product.	Hohler contends stringent good-cause showing applies, and some items exceed it.	Most items containing opinion work product are discoverable under the good-cause test; one item with conflicting rationale was properly ordered for disclosure.
Whether the law-of-the-case and waiver rulings were properly applied	Estate argues the trial court misunderstood the scope of waiver and violated law-of-the-case.	Hohler asserts waivers and prior rulings were correctly applied and not foreclosed by law-of-the-case.	No law-of-the-case violation; waiver scope correctly applied; meaningful appellate review remains.

Estate of Hohler v. Hohler, 185 Ohio App.3d 420 (2009-Ohio-7013) (held surviving-spouse waiver of privilege allowed; work product requires good cause)
Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, L.L.P. v. Givaudan Flavors Corp., 127 Ohio St.3d 161 (2010-Ohio-4469) (attorney work product may be discovered for good cause if directly at issue)
State v. Hoop, 134 Ohio App.3d 627 (1999) (defines standard for protecting attorney's mental impressions as part of work product)