BILL NUMBER: AB 2025	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Wagner

                        FEBRUARY 23, 2012

   An act to amend Section 1120 of the Evidence Code, relating to
evidence.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2025, as introduced, Wagner. Evidence: admissibility.
   Under existing law, when a person consults a mediator or mediation
service for the purpose of retaining mediation services, or when
parties agree to conduct and participate in a mediation for the
purpose of compromising, settling, or resolving a civil dispute,
anything said in the course of the consultation for mediation
services or in the course of the mediation is not admissible in
evidence nor subject to discovery in any other action or proceeding.
Existing law provides that evidence that is otherwise admissible is
not inadmissible solely because it was introduced or used in a
mediation or mediation consultation. Additionally, existing law
provides that an agreement to mediate a dispute or to extend the time
within which to act or refrain from acting in a civil action is
admissible, as is the mere fact that a mediator served, is serving,
will serve, or was contacted about serving as a mediator in the
dispute.
   This bill would provide that communications between a client and
his or her attorney during mediation are admissible in an action for
legal malpractice or breach of fiduciary duty, or both, and in a
State Bar disciplinary action, if the attorney's professional
negligence or misconduct forms the basis of the client's allegations
against the attorney.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 1120 of the Evidence Code is amended to read:
   1120.  (a) Evidence otherwise admissible or subject to discovery
outside of a mediation or a mediation consultation shall not be or
become inadmissible or protected from disclosure solely by reason of
its introduction or use in a mediation or a mediation consultation.
   (b) This chapter does not limit any of the following:
   (1) The admissibility of an agreement to mediate a dispute.
   (2) The effect of an agreement not to take a default or an
agreement to extend the time within which to act or refrain from
acting in a pending civil action.
   (3) Disclosure of the mere fact that a mediator has served, is
serving, will serve, or was contacted about serving as a mediator in
a dispute. 
   (4) The admissibility in an action for legal malpractice, an
action for breach of fiduciary duty, or both, or in a State Bar
disciplinary action, of communications directly between the client
and his or her attorney during mediation if professional negligence
or misconduct forms the basis of the client's allegations against the
attorney.