Prichard v M 6:8 Legal Pty Ltd

[2024] WASCA 4

Western Australia Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Evidence
2. › Privilege
3. › Without prejudice privilege
4. › Statutory extension of common law privilege
5. › Mediation privilege
6. › Whether settlement offers made in court-ordered mediation admissible in subsequent negligence proceedings against party's own solicitor
7. › Supreme Court Act 1935 (WA), s 71
1. Evidence
2. › Privilege
3. › Waiver
4. › Statutory mediation privilege
5. › Whether conduct of some parties to mediation constitutes waiver by all parties
6. › Whether consent of all parties required
7. › Supreme Court Act 1935 (WA), s 71(3)(a)
1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Bias
3. › Apprehended bias
4. › Past association between judge's relative and party's solicitor
5. › Whether reasonable apprehension of bias arose from long-past professional association between judge's brother and director of solicitors' firm
1. Statutes
2. › Interpretation
3. › Purposive construction
4. › Primacy of statutory text
5. › Whether purposive construction permits reading in exceptions not found in statutory text
6. › Supreme Court Act 1935 (WA), s 71

Quick Take

Section 71 of the Supreme Court Act 1935 (WA) renders mediation communications inadmissible even in subsequent negligence proceedings by a party against their own solicitor, and purposive construction cannot be used to read in an exception for such claims.