The principle from Commissioner of Taxation v Citibank Ltd requiring a practical and realistic opportunity to assert legal professional privilege is confined to circumstances where an authority seeks to take possession of documents under compulsive process from a person who may claim privilege. It does not extend to creating a right to assert privilege over documents already in the possession of the authority, obtained from third persons. Once privileged documents come into the possession of another party, the privilege is lost and the only available remedy is an equitable claim to protect confidentiality, which requires identification with specificity of the confidential information, its quality of confidentiality, and actual or threatened misuse.
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