Medical referrals are protected by privilege: the issue is whether a lawyer/doctor financial relationship is discoverable.

A divided Florida Supreme Court held that a law firm referring a client to a treating physician is protected by the attorney-client privilege, and that the law firm may not be subjected to costly records requests to determine if it has a "cozy relationship" with a medical provider.

The 4-3 opinion, issued on April 13, overturned a ruling from the Fifth District Court of Appeal in the case where the high-profile law firm, Morgan & Morgan, was representing a client suing the Central Florida YMCA. The client, Heather Worley, had fallen in the YMCA parking lot and sought medical treatment.

Doctors in the emergency room, where she twice went for treatment, advised her to see a specialist concerning her knee injuries. Instead, Worley hired Morgan & Morgan and was eventually treated by doctors at three different facilities, Sea Spine Orthopedic Institute, Underwood Surgery Center, and Sanctuary Surgical & Anesthesia.

Morgan & Morgan eventually filed suit against the YMCA. As part of discovery, the defendants asked Worley if she had been referred to the medical providers by her lawyers, who objected to the question, and sought to find out the relationship between the law firm and the medical providers.

Worley declined to answer the question about the referral at her initial deposition on the grounds of attorney-client privilege, and the YMCA then sent interrogatories to the doctors employed by the medical providers and a request to produce to Morgan & Morgan "in an effort to establish the existence of a referral relationship between Worley's attorneys and her treating physicians."

The trial court said Worley did not have to answer the referral questions, but allowed the interrogatories. Morgan & Morgan said complying with the request would cost $94,010 and require over 200 hours of attorney review time, but the trial court denied the firm's objection.

That led to an appeal to the Fifth DCA, which, in conflict with an earlier ruling by the Second DCA, upheld the trial court and also said Worley could testify about whether Morgan & Morgan referred her to the treating physicians.

Justice Peggy Quince, writing for the majority, said the court had to determine more than whether a referral by an attorney and documents relating to a referral relationship between an attorney and medical providers are protected by the attorney-client privilege. Underlying that question is "whether the financial relationship between a plaintiff's law firm and the plaintiff's...