Page:Parker v. Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Co.pdf/10

1082   Furthermore, Parker's first request for the ten most recent cancellation notices was filed October 26, 1994, and his second request for the twenty most recent cancellation notices was filed January 20, 1995. Parker's action for bad faith asserting failure to comply with the statutory notice provision was filed on July 13, 1994. However, he did not request cancellation notices issued by Farm Bureau to other policy holders prior to July 13, 1994. His cause of action for bad faith must exist and be complete at the time his lawsuit was filed, Elston v. Wilborn, 208 Ark. 377, 186 S.W.2d 662 (1945), and Parker does not show how notices sent after his lawsuit was filed would be relevant to his bad-faith claim.

[3] As we stated in Marrow, supra, a motion for production of documents must be considered in the light of the particular circumstances which give rise to it and the need of the movant for the information requested. Given the particular circumstances and our standard of review, we cannot say that the trial court abused its discretion in granting the protective order.

B. Parker's claim file.
Parker also sought to discover all Farm Bureau inter-office memoranda relating to his claim, to which Farm Bureau objected. Farm Bureau submitted Parker's thirty-eight-page claim file to the trial court for an in camera inspection. The trial court determined that four pages of the file would not be discoverable, finding that they were prepared in anticipation of litigation under Ark. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(3).

The four pages of the claims file that the trial court found were prepared in anticipation of litigation were all inter-office memoranda between two Farm Bureau employees, sent from November 22, 1993 to May 23, 1994.

On appeal, Parker argues that the four pages were not matters covered by the attorney–client privilege. However, Farm Bureau does not assert that the materials are protected by the attorney–client privilege, nor did the trial court base its ruling on attorney–client privilege. Instead, the trial court found that Parker had threatened suit in November of 1993, and "after that point in time, certain documents may have been prepared in anticipation of litigation or may reflect representatives of Farm Bureau's legal theories concerning any defense to the threatened suit."