Recent Developments Regarding Legal Professional Privilege

Publish Date: February 27, 2007

Generally, Legal Professional Privilege exists to protect communication between solicitor and client and pertaining to existing or potential legal action. Although privilege can be formally waived, the waiver of privilege can also be implied in the words or actions of a client, as recently seen in AWB v Coles.

In AWB v Coles, AWB was instructed to produce documents to the Royal Commission investigating the UN Oil-for-Food program. AWB refused, arguing that the documents in question were subject to Legal Professional Privilege. AWB then asserted that it had obtained legal advice pertaining to its operations in question and that such advice had effectively cleared it of any wrongdoing, as there was no evidence that AWB had any knowledge of money being channeled to Sadam Hussein’s regime, and that there was no evidence of any corruption.