Attorney-Client Privilege Protection Act of 2007
Latest action · Nov 14, 2007 Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedJul 12, 2007
- Passed HouseNov 13, 2007
- Passed SenateNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Attorney-Client Privilege Protection Act of 2007 - Amends the federal criminal code to prohibit any U.S. agent or attorney, in any federal investigation or criminal or civil enforcement matter, from demanding, requesting, or conditioning treatment ("giving cooperation credit") on the disclosure by an organization (or affiliated person) of any communication protected by the attorney-client privilege or any attorney work product.
Prohibits a U.S. agent or attorney from conditioning a civil or criminal charging decision relating to an organization (or affiliated person) on one or more specified actions, or from using one or more such actions as a factor in determining whether an organization or affiliated person is cooperating with the government.
Numbers among the actions a U.S. agent or attorney may not use as a charging decision condition or a cooperation-determining factor: (1) any valid assertion of the attorney-client privilege or privilege for attorney work product; (2) the provision of counsel to, or contribution to the legal defense fees or expenses of, an employee of the organization; (3) entry into a joint-defense, information-sharing, or common-interest agreement with an employee of the organization if the organization determines it has a common interest in defending against the investigation or enforcement matter; (4) the sharing of relevant information with an employee; or (5) a failure to terminate an employee's employment, or otherwise sanction an employee, because of the employee's decision to exercise his or her constitutional rights or other legal protections in response to a government request.
Prohibits a U.S. agent or attorney from demanding or requesting that an organization or an affiliated person not take any such action.
Declares that this Act does not affect any other federal statute that may authorize, in the course of an examination or inspection, a U.S. agent or attorney to require or compel the production of attorney-client privileged material or attorney work product.
Declares that the prohibition against conditioning a charging decision does not apply to charging an organization (or affiliated person) for certain conduct under a federal law which makes that conduct in itself an offense. Specifies as conduct which may under federal law constitute an offense, and so be exempted from this prohibition: (1) the provision of counsel to, or contribution to the legal defense fees or expenses of, an employee of the organization; (2) entry into a joint defense, information sharing, or common interest agreement with an employee of that organization if the organization determines it has a common interest in defending against the investigation or enforcement matter; and (3) the sharing of information relevant to the investigation or enforcement matter with an employee of the organization.
Cosponsors 11
Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Jul 12, 2007 to Jul 31, 2007, with 8 there on the day it was introduced.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D-AL | Artur Davis | Original | Jul 12, 2007 |
| R-CA | Daniel E. Lungren | Original | Jul 12, 2007 |
| R-NC | Howard Coble | Original | Jul 12, 2007 |
| R-VA | J. Randy Forbes | Original | Jul 12, 2007 |
| D-MI | John Conyers, Jr. | Original | Jul 12, 2007 |
| R-TX | Lamar Smith | Original | Jul 12, 2007 |
| R-IL | Peter J. Roskam | Original | Jul 12, 2007 |
| R-FL | Tom Feeney | Original | Jul 12, 2007 |
| D-MA | Bill Delahunt | Jul 27, 2007 | |
| D-NY | Jerrold Nadler | Jul 31, 2007 | |
| D-IL | Melissa L. Bean | Jul 31, 2007 |
Actions 16
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Nov 14, 2007Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
- Nov 13, 2007Considered under suspension of the rules. (consideration: CR H13562-13564)
- Nov 13, 2007DEBATE - The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H.R. 3013.
- Nov 13, 2007Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
- Nov 13, 2007Mr. Scott (VA) moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended.
Related bills 2
Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.
| Bill | Title | Relationship | Latest action |
|---|---|---|---|
| S 186 | Attorney-Client Privilege Protection Act of 2007 | Identical bill | Sep 18, 2007 |
| S 3217 | Attorney-Client Privilege Protection Act of 2008 | Related bill | Jun 26, 2008 |
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Crime and Law Enforcement.
Text 3
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Nov 13, 2007Reported in House
- Nov 13, 2007Engrossed in House
- Jul 12, 2007Introduced in House
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.