The Queensland Court of Appeal held that a client who applies for statutory assessment of a former solicitor's costs under the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld) does not thereby waive legal professional privilege over solicitor-client communications, even where the application raises grounds touching on the quality and competence of legal services, provided the client does not make express or implied assertions about the content of privileged communications or otherwise lay them open to scrutiny. Where the client initially included allegations of negligence in its supporting affidavit but withdrew them before the privilege dispute was determined, the inconsistency that would have grounded waiver fell away, and the privilege was maintained. The Court also held that a solicitor cannot effect waiver of the client's privilege by summarising privileged communications in post-retainer correspondence, and that the 'indulgence' principle regarding costs does not override the court's broader discretion to consider the reasonableness of the parties' conduct.
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