California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from Blackburn v. Superior Court, 21 Cal.App.4th 414, 27 Cal.Rptr.2d 204 (Cal. App. 1993):
"A party is not entitled to decide for himself whether he is protected by the Fifth Amendment privilege. Rather, this question is for the court to decide after conducting 'a particularized inquiry, deciding, in connection with each specific area that the questioning party seeks to explore, whether or not the privilege is well-founded [citation].' " (Warford v. Medeiros, supra, 160 Cal.App.3d at p. 1045, 207 Cal.Rptr. 94, quoting S.E.C. v. First Financial Group of Texas, Inc. (5th Cir.1981) 659 F.2d 660, 658.) "The reason for the requirement that the person claiming the privilege must object with specificity to the information sought from him is that only where this is done is the trial court enabled to make a particularized inquiry required of it." (Warford v. Medeiros (1984) 160 Cal.App.3d 1035, 1045, 207 Cal.Rptr. 94.)
The above passage should not be considered legal advice. Reliable answers to complex legal questions require comprehensive research memos. To learn more visit www.alexi.com.