Lawyers Weekly has an article by some folk at Allens noting Justice Branson's decision in Rich v Harrington [2007] FCA 1987, a mega anti-discrimination suit brought by Christina Rich, a former partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers Australia against the other partners. There are so many privilege cases which come out, it's hard to know which ones to [...]
Entries Tagged as 'legal professional privilege'
Seems the implied waiver hystericals were right after all
July 16th, 2008 · No Comments
Tags: legal professional privilege
Getting documents out of insurers
December 3rd, 2007 · No Comments
If I recall correctly, one of my first contested hearings as a young solicitor was about whether the claim for privilege over a loss adjuster's report in an affidavit of documents drafted by me was kosher. I went on to write an article on the subject in that august journal, the newsletter of Women in [...]
Tags: Client Legal Privilege · legal professional privilege
Yet another corporate counsel privilege case; the US position.
November 28th, 2007 · 1 Comment
Even though legal professional privilege, duties of confidentiality, and other evidentiary privileges are something I try to keep up with, and though I have just advised a litigation funder on the subject, I would be challenged by an urgent brief to argue the privilege of a communication between in-house counsel and a staff member [...]
Tags: Ethics · duties of confidentiality · legal professional privilege
Father instructs lawyer as daughter's agent then daughter sues him: whose privilege?
November 16th, 2007 · No Comments
Here's a weird old privilege case: Sugden v Sugden [2007] NSWCA 312. A minor from Orange in rural NSW suffered bad injuries in a car crash while she was driving. She was on L plates and her father was supervising. Since she was all banged up and in the Royal North [...]
Tags: Ethics · Retainers · duties of confidentiality · legal professional privilege
The US position on legal professional privilege for in-house counsel communications
November 16th, 2007 · No Comments
Here's the state of the law in the US on the vexed issue of whether companies can assert legal professional privilege (aka client legal privilege) for the advice of employed lawyers (aka in-house counsel). It discusses the case of In re Vioxx Prods. Liab. Litig., 501 F.Supp.2d 789 (E.D. La. 2007)
Tags: duties of confidentiality · legal professional privilege
2nd edition of Professional Liability in Australia reviewed
October 18th, 2007 · No Comments
I was already a fan of the first edition of Judge Stephen Walmsley SC, Alister Abadee, and Ben Zipser's excellent Professional Liability in Australia, published by Thomson, and had been waiting for the new edition with interest. I got myself a copy the other day. It's good, and there are substantial additions since [...]
Tags: Advocates' Immunity · Barristers' immunity · Book reviews · Causation · Discipline · Duties to third parties · Ethics · Fair Trading Act · Fiduciary duties · Forensic immunity · Legal Profession Act · Legal writing · Limitations of actions · Misconduct · Negligence · Professional regulation · Proportionate Liability · Retainers · Striking off · Uncategorized · Wasted costs · conflicts · defences · doctors · duties of confidentiality · legal professional privilege · two bites at the cherry
Useful propositions from Z v New South Wales Crime Commission
April 23rd, 2007 · No Comments
These propositions from Z v New South Wales Crime Commission [2007] HCA 7 may be useful in relation to matters more generally than for understanding the basis of the Court's decision:
Tags: Ethics · Retainers · duties of confidentiality · legal professional privilege
High Court on whether client's identity can be privileged
April 23rd, 2007 · No Comments
A man came to a lawyer and sought advice about the implications of anonymously passing to police information about a suspected criminal. The solicitor gave advice, and the client authorised the communication of the information to the police. The solicitor passed it on without advising his client's identity. Years later, after the suspected criminal allegedly [...]
Tags: Ethics · duties of confidentiality · legal professional privilege
Free notifications of new High Court and Vic Supreme Court cases; client legal privilege watch
April 23rd, 2007 · No Comments
I found some useful web resources yesterday. First, Peter Faris QC publishes blogs which do no more than consolidate in one place all the court-provided information (what I think of as the unreported version of a headnote) about the decisions of the High Court, Supreme Court of Victoria, and Victorian Court of Appeal. Each court's [...]
Tags: Ethics · Law Blogs · duties of confidentiality · legal professional privilege
The solicitor and "the other side's witness", part II
January 3rd, 2007 · 1 Comment
Part I is the extraordinary story of a leading labour lawyer in Melbourne who was found to have induced breach of contract in taking a statement from an ex-employee of the other side in a class action in which the lawyer was the plaintiffs' solicitor. Unbeknownst to him, the ex-employee continued to be bound by [...]
Tags: Ethics · concurrent duties · duties of confidentiality · duties regarding witnesses · duty and duty · legal professional privilege · litigation ethics

