Tortorici v. Goord,
No. 02 Civ.5418 WHP (S.D.N.Y. June 10, 2003)

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that quality assurance documents created by a psychiatric provider were not shielded from discovery by either the "deliberative process privilege" or the "self-critical analysis privilege." The court noted that the quality assurance documents were not prepared to assist the provider in making a decision, thus foreclosing application of the deliberative process privilege. Also, since state law mandated that the documents in question be created, there was no risk that disclosing them would "chill" future investigations. Thus, the self-critical process privilege did not apply.