Champion v Rohrt

[2016] VSCA 215

Victorian Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Solicitors
2. › Client documents
3. › Entitlement of solicitor to retain documents on file
4. › Whether documents property of client or solicitor
5. › Considerations relevant to determination of ownership
6. › Wentworth v De Montfort (1988) 15 NSWLR 348
1. Solicitors
2. › Civil disputes
3. › Jurisdiction of Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal
4. › Whether dispute between liquidator and company's solicitor was 'civil dispute'
5. › Whether liquidator acted as agent of company when requesting documents
6. › Legal Profession Act 2004 (Vic), s 4.2.2
7. › Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), s 530B
1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Costs
3. › Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal
4. › Discretion to award costs
5. › Whether fair to depart from general rule that each party bear own costs
6. › Characterisation of party's conduct of proceeding
7. › Indemnity costs
8. › Whether Tribunal erred in exercise of costs discretion
9. › Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998 (Vic), s 109
1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Costs
3. › Appellate review of costs discretion
4. › Whether discretion miscarried by reason of legal error
5. › House v The King (1936) 55 CLR 499

Quick Take

A dispute between a liquidator and a company's former solicitor over production of the company's documents is a 'civil dispute' within s 4.2.2 of the Legal Profession Act 2004 (Vic), because the liquidator acts as agent of the company when requesting its property. However, when a liquidator exercises powers under s 530B of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), the liquidator acts in his or her own capacity. The question whether a particular document on a solicitor's file is the property of the client or the solicitor depends on multiple considerations including the purpose for which the document was created and whether the client was charged for its creation; there is no general rule that all documents except file notes belong to the client.