By Peter Rudegeair 

Oct 5 (Reuters) - The city of San Jose, California, filed a complaint on Thursday to recover confidential documents it mistakenly provided to a law firm.

In complying with several requests made under the California Public Records Act, San Jose turned over hundreds of documents to the law firm of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman between December 2011 and June 2012.

By August, the city discovered that among those documents were 11 email chains containing unredacted information that either was protected by attorney-client privilege or represented attorney work product, said San Jose City Attorney Richard Doyle, who declined to give any more specifics.

Through several letters, phone calls and emails, the city requested that the firm give back the privileged documents, but Pillsbury refused. To force the matter, the city asked the Santa Clara County Superior Court for an injunction requiring the return of the documents and prohibiting the firm from disseminating them any further.

The Superior Court issued a temporary restraining order on Friday morning that prevents Pillsbury from disclosing or using the unredacted documents pending a hearing on Nov. 6.

San Jose in the past has inadvertently released other bits of privileged information in complying with requests for public records, but this is the first time that a law firm has refused to return such documents, Doyle said.

Pillsbury's reasons for not returning the documents were not immediately clear. Spokesmen for Pillsbury did not respond to requests for comment.

The case is City of San Jose v. Pillsbury Winthrop, Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara, No. 1-12-cv-233498.

For San Jose: Richard Doyle of the San Jose's City Attorneys Office.

For Pillsbury: Not immediately available.

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