Limitations of the Deliberative Process Privilege

Spring 2011
ABA's Mass Torts Litigation newsletter
We live in a highly regulated world. In October 2008, an ABC television correspondent demonstrated on camera that, if pulled out and laid end to end, the pages of a single volume of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) would reach across the length of a full football field— and back to the 50-yard line. The CFR occupies 10 full shelves in the Library of Congress. Unsurprisingly, then, federal agencies are constantly rendering decisions and taking actions that are highly relevant to litigation, including litigation arising out of mass torts.