The defendant was not entitled to a writ of certiorari to quash discovery orders requiring him to provide social media and financial records that might reveal he spent money at places that served him alcohol on the night of a motor vehicle accident.

The defendant was involved in a hit-and-run accident that resulted in a pedestrian’s death and was charged with various criminal offenses. After the accident, the plaintiff alleged that the defendant “posted” about the accident on social media. The plaintiff sued the defendant’s mother as the owner of the vehicle and the bar where he was allegedly drinking before the accident. The plaintiff’s complaint alleged that the defendant had a long history of alcohol abuse that was known to the bar. Over the defendant’s objection to the plaintiff’s request for productions and interrogatories seeking the defendant’s production of financial records—including bank accounts, credit card statements and digital copies of all social media accounts—the defendant moved to quash the discovery order. The defendant alleged that production of these records would violate his rights under the Fifth Amendment that no person shall be required in any criminal case to be a witness against himself. The court held that the defendant was unable to establish that the proffered information requested was testimonial or communicative in nature. The court held that where the financial discovery may reveal that the defendant spent money at a place that serves alcohol, that alone did not link him to the crimes charged or the extent of his drinking on the night of the accident or any other pertinent time. Regarding the social media records, the defendant was required to produce the records as they did not demonstrate or reveal anything he had not already publicly post. 

_{Case Law Alerts, 2^nd Quarter, April 2018}

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