Does the Attorney General have an obligation to provide a good faith effort to obtain materials from a defendant's trial attorney?

The Attorney General points out that a trial attorney is obligated to turn over the litigation file to the client or new counsel once that attorney's representation has terminated. (Rose v. State Bar (1989) 49 Cal.3d 646, 655, 262 Cal.Rptr. 702, 779 P.2d 761.) Thus, he argues, the statutory requirement that the defendant make a good faith effort to obtain the materials from trial counsel "only makes sense when section 1054.9 is read as a means to reconstruct defendants' trial files when trial counsel have failed to fulfill their duties." Again, we disagree. The reason for the good faith effort requirement of section 1054.9, subdivision (a), is not difficult to discern to prevent defendants from clogging the courts with requests to obtain materials they could simply get from trial counsel. The requirement does not modify the definition of discovery materials contained in subdivision (b) of that section.