Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc. v. Lopez
In a slip-and-fall case, the trial court ordered Winn-Dixie to produce the "Injury/Illness" and "Narrative" portions of its incident report after concluding they contained the plaintiff's own statements. The Third District granted certiorari and quashed the order, holding the report contained no qualifying "witness statement" under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.280(b)(4) because the plaintiff did not author, sign, adopt, or approve the identified sections and there was no verbatim recording, so the work-product protection remained intact.
Key facts
- Plaintiff Lopez filed a slip-and-fall case against Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc., seeking discovery of the store's internal incident report.
- The trial court ordered Winn-Dixie to produce the 'Injury/Illness' and 'Narrative' portions of the incident report, concluding they contained the plaintiff's own statements and were therefore discoverable without work-product protection.
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Why it matters
A useful defense-side tool in premises liability and other tort litigation where plaintiffs routinely seek internal incident reports by characterizing narrative sections as their own statements. The opinion makes clear… — full analysis with a trial
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