{"id":221162,"date":"2026-05-27T13:17:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T17:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/27\/ai-privilege-and-discovery-in-view-of-heppner-and-morgan\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T13:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T17:50:11","slug":"ai-privilege-and-discovery-in-view-of-heppner-and-morgan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/27\/ai-privilege-and-discovery-in-view-of-heppner-and-morgan\/","title":{"rendered":"AI, privilege, and discovery in view of &#8216;Heppner&#8217; and &#8216;Morgan&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/legal\/legalindustry\/ai-privilege-discovery-view-heppner-morgan--pracin-2026-05-27\/\">AI, privilege, and discovery in view of &#8216;Heppner&#8217; and &#8216;Morgan&#8217;<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/legal\/legalindustry\/ai-privilege-discovery-view-heppner-morgan--pracin-2026-05-27\/\">https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/legal\/legalindustry\/ai-privilege-discovery-view-heppner-morgan&#8211;pracin-2026-05-27\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-05-27 13:17:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.reuters.com\">www.reuters.com<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Federal courts are exploring the practical impacts of generative AI on litigation discovery as parties and attorneys increasingly use it for preparation.<\/li>\n<li>Two recent cases exemplify contrasting approaches: United States v. Heppner (criminal prosecution) and Morgan v. V2X, Inc. (civil employment discrimination action).<\/li>\n<li>In Heppner, the court ruled that AI-generated documents independently created by a defendant without attorney involvement did not qualify for attorney-client privilege or work product protection.<\/li>\n<li>The court emphasized that AI platforms do not fulfill the role of attorneys and lack confidentiality, thus denying protection.<\/li>\n<li>In contrast, the Morgan court held that work product protection applies to pro se litigants since they represent themselves in both roles as party and advocate.<\/li>\n<li>The court ruled that disclosing the plaintiff\u2019s AI tool use was reasonable and established AI-specific protective order restrictions to safeguard confidentiality and privacy.<\/li>\n<li>Heppner and Morgan illustrate that disputes over AI-assisted litigation preparation are fact-specific, and courts are carefully analyzing these issues without adopting categorical rules.<\/li>\n<li>Companies and individuals should collaborate on clear protocols for AI use, including documenting instances when AI use is directed by counsel to safeguard potential protections.<\/li>\n<li>The contractual terms of AI platforms, including data training and third-party disclosures, are pivotal in determining permissible use under protective orders.<\/li>\n<li>As courts evolve their discovery practices in light of AI, the context and surrounding circumstances will remain critically important in shaping future disputes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AI, privilege, and discovery in view of &#8216;Heppner&#8217; and &#8216;Morgan&#8217; https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/legal\/legalindustry\/ai-privilege-discovery-view-heppner-morgan&#8211;pracin-2026-05-27\/ Publish Date: 2026-05-27 13:17:00&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":221167,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/resizer\/v2\/U5MFORENHVPXJKVFD3FG32GDWI.jpg?auth=9698943bd0ab0e44dfe3c3601435300cea7eb8afa69347b4d7df85ed10232098&height=1005&width=1920&quality=80&smart=true","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-221162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-generative-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221162"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221168,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221162\/revisions\/221168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}