TITLE FIVE — PRIVILEGES AND DISQUALIFICATION
Rule 502. Privileges Recognized Only as Provided
Restriction against Privilege. Except as otherwise provided by constitution, statute, rules promulgated by the Supreme Court, or the common law, no person has a privilege to:
refuse to be a witness,
refuse to disclose any matter,
refuse to produce any object or writing, or
prevent another from being a witness or disclosing any matter or producing any object or writing.
Privileges Recognized in This State. The privileges and protections recognized in the courts of this State are:
the protection of work product and trial preparation material, Rule 504, Rid. R. Civ. P. 19(4), and Rid. R. Crim. P. 14(a)(5);
the investigatory privilege, including the privilege for law enforcement records, for the operational files exempted under 9 R. Stat. §§ 122.001 and 122.101, and for pre-decisional deliberative material within 9 R. Stat. § 123.002(e), Rule 506;
the privilege for classified information, 9 R. Stat. §§ 111.002, 121.001 through 121.008, and 122.201 through 122.209, Rule 507;
the freedom of deliberation, speech, and debate in the Legislature, Const. art. I, § 10, which no accusation, prosecution, action, or complaint in any court or place may be founded upon; and
any privilege that a statute of this State expressly confers, and any privilege that the Supreme Court hereafter recognizes by rule.
No Other Privilege. No other privilege exists in the courts of this State. In particular, and because neither the Constitution, nor a statute, nor these rules, nor the common law of this State provides otherwise, no person has a privilege founded upon the relation of spouse to spouse, of physician or other medical provider to patient, of psychotherapist or counsellor to client, of clergy to penitent, of accountant to client, of journalist or publisher to source, of notary public to principal, of peace officer to a superior, of employer to employee, or of insurer to insured. A claim of privilege upon any such ground shall be overruled. The Notaries Public Act, 3 R. Stat. §§ 311.001 through 312.205, imposes upon a notary public no duty of confidentiality and confers upon a principal no privilege; a notary public is a competent witness to every notarial act the notary performed and to every fact the notary observed in performing it.
Confidentiality Is Not Privilege. That a matter is confidential, sensitive, private, embarrassing, commercially valuable, or protected by an agreement, a policy, or a term of service does not make it privileged. Protection for such a matter is had, if at all, by an order under Rid. R. Civ. P. 19(7) that binds persons, and not by a privilege and not by any sealing of the record.
Statutory Abrogation. Where a statute expressly abrogates or restricts a privilege, the statute controls. In particular:
before the State Auditor, no defence of privilege, secrecy, or confidentiality is valid against the production of documents or testimony required by subpoena except a privilege expressly provided by law; a claim of privilege shall be presented to the court for in camera review under Rule 501(i); and if the court determines that the privilege is not applicable or is overridden by the public interest in the audit or investigation, the person shall comply in full, 2 R. Stat. § 512.008;
no defence of sovereign immunity, official capacity, or governmental privilege bars the enforcement of a subpoena issued by the State Auditor, and every public officer, employee, agency, department, and instrumentality of the State may be compelled to testify or to produce, subject only to constitutional limits and to privileges expressly enumerated by statute, 2 R. Stat. § 512.009; and
the State Auditor is not empowered to compel the release of materials subject to the attorney-client privilege or to statutory confidentiality, materials that would compromise an ongoing criminal investigation or an evaluation, investigation, or audit, or materials whose release would violate the constitutional or statutory rights of any person, 2 R. Stat. § 512.106.
Construction. This rule is a rule of exclusion. It shall not be construed to create a privilege, to enlarge a privilege beyond the terms of the provision that recognizes it, or to authorize the recognition of a privilege by analogy to the law of another jurisdiction.