They’ve changed the law in relation to legal professional privilege on us. The common law has been abolished, at least in relation to compulsory processes (discovery, subpoenas, interrogatories, notice to produce) in fora where the new Evidence Act, 2008 applies, and the adduction of evidence in those fora. Two legal professional privilege regimes are now [...]

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Several recent posts have been about the implied waiver which is said to be an incident of clients suing their former solicitors for negligence.  They are simply case notes.  Some of the cases are English.  All were decided under a law different from that which from 1 January 2010 applies in Victorian court proceedings, a [...]

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Benecke v National Australia Bank (1993) 35 NSWLR 110 is one of the best known Australian cases about imputed waiver in relation to making allegations about the course of the retainer of former lawyers.  It is not, however, a case about imputed waiver in professional negligence suits against former solicitors, since this was not such [...]

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Back from Vanuatu, a pleasant place, I am slaving away at a 10,000 word paper on the application of the Evidence Act, 2008 to civil cases involving lawyers.  In due course, no doubt, I will subject you to a serialised version of it.  One of the things I am considering is that species of implied [...]

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Tax advice is given by lawyers and accountants alike.  Lawyers’ advice is privileged by legal professional privilege (also known as client legal privilege), but accountants’ advice is not, at least not under the advice limb. If you ever need authority for that proposition, it is Regina (Prudential plc and Another) v Special Commissioner of Income [...]

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For the moment, I am taking Advanced Evidence at Melbourne University, and Goldberg v Ng [1995] HCA 39; (1995) 185 CLR 83 is on the reading guide.  As it is a case about a lawyer-client dispute, and as it not likely to be at the forefront of reading about legal professional privilege since Mann v [...]

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A former client of mine, dissatisfied with the adverse outcome in a complaint he lodged making serious allegations against a senior member of the profession has tipped me off to an own motion investigation conducted into the Bureau de Spank by the Victorian Ombudsman.  The results, reproduced below, will not assist morale at the Bureau [...]

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Update: What do you know! Here’s another one, hot off the press of the Supreme Court of Queensland: Charleville RSL Memorial Club Inc v Sheapalm Pty Ltd [2009] QSC 193.
Original post: What insurers do when they get a public liability claim is hire a loss assessor to find out the facts,  hopefully get to the [...]

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Robin Tampoe, the former Gold Coast lawyer hired as one of Schapelle Corby’s lawyers by Ron Bakir, has been struck off the roll of solicitors by Queensland’s Legal Practice Tribunal. The decision is here.  Removal from the roll is the ultimate sanction in the world of professional discipline, though in circumstances where it is not [...]

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Update, 13 January 2010: See now British American Tobacco Australia Limited v Gordon (No 3) [2009] VSC 619.
In Legal Practitioners Complaints Committee v Mark T QC [2009] WASAT 42, the Perth QC who announced to the Australian media that Schapelle Corby’s Balinese lawyers were trying to get money to bribe the judges sought to excuse [...]

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