Not Hanging Up Speakerphone Waives Privilege?
From the lawyer's nightmare category: you don't hang up your speakerphone all the way, and someone on the other end hears you talking about your client's private information. Over at Law.com, they have an article about an in-house counsel who did just that - and accidentally left a voicemail recording his conversation with other company officers. The question in the case, which is going up before the California Supreme Court, is whether the in-house counsel waived privilege over the conversation by failing to disconnect his phone. (There are actually a few questions, because the conversation allegedly had to do with stealing trade secrets from the voicemail recipient). I have seen lawyers press the "hang up" button four or five times, lift and drop the handset four or five more, and do everything but unplug the phone from the wall to make sure speakerphone is off. This is why.