Burnham v. Cleveland Clinic

# Burnham v. Cleveland Clinic - Plain English Summary **What Happened** A person slipped and fell while visiting a family member at Cleveland Clinic. The person sued the Clinic over the accident. During the case, the Clinic refused to hand over an incident report (called a SERS report) that documented what happened, claiming it was protected private communication with their lawyers. **What the Court Decided** An appeals court sided with the injured person. The court ruled that the Clinic had to turn over the incident report. The judges found that the report was not actually protected by attorney-client privilege because it wasn't created specifically for lawyers or by someone whose job was legal work. **Why This Matters for Workers** This case shows that when someone gets injured at work or on company property, employers cannot always hide incident reports by claiming they're confidential legal documents. Courts will examine who actually created the report and why. If a regular employee or risk manager documented what happened—not a lawyer—that report can be discovered and used as evidence. This helps injured workers access important information about what the company knew regarding safety incidents.