On Friday 1/29/10, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (highest court) issued an opinion in the case of Nationwide v. Fleming affirming the decision of the Superior Court (intermediate appellate court), that ruled the attorney-client privilege applies only to information given to the attorney by the client.
The 2007 Superior Court decision (924 A.2d 1259) offered the following analysis:
"In sum, under our statutory and decisional law, attorney-client privilege protects from disclosure only those communications made by a client to his or her attorney which are confidential and made in connection with the providing of legal services or advice. The privilege extends to communications from an attorney to his or her client if and only if the communications fall within the general statutory definition. Consistent with this statute, the privilege protects confidential communications from an attorney to his or her client only to the extent that such communications contain and would thus reveal confidential communications from the client." More...