Does a party in a civil dispute have the right to raise the Fifth Amendment Privilege against self-incrimination? Yes. De Lisi v. Bankers Ins. Co., 436 So.2d 1099 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983). Does the privilege extend to production of documents or just testimony? The privilege only extends to the production of documents unless the production itself is testimonial in nature. Briggs v. Salcines, 392 So.2d 263 (Fla. 2d DCA 1980) (“It then held that while the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination affords no protection to the contents of previously prepared documents, it does protect a person from producing documents under subpoena where the compelled production would amount to a forced testimonial communication which would be incriminating.”); see also, Fisher v. United States, 96 S. Ct. 1569 (1976). Whether the act of production is testimonial or not can be a complicated analysis. Essentially, if the government were to already know of the existence of documents and the location of such documents then production is not testimonial because the act of producing will not authenticate such documents or otherwise verify the existence of incriminating information.
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