› Legal professional privilege — iniquity exception
Quick Take
1Inclusion of documents in a family-level document management plan for disclosure purposes does not of itself constitute a concession of direct relevance of every document within that family, nor does it waive privilege over attachments to a disclosed parent document.
2To engage the iniquity exception to legal professional privilege, the challenging party must establish more than mere assertion or speculation of improper purpose; there must be a prima facie case with 'something to give colour to the charge' that the communications were made in furtherance of an unlawful purpose, and advice sought about consequences of past conduct or potential penalties does not meet this threshold.
3The power under UCPR r 223(2) to order a party to file an affidavit about non-existent documents is not a general remedy available where the applicant cannot discharge the onus of showing an objective likelihood that the disclosure duty has not been complied with, particularly where the solicitor with carriage has already provided a detailed affidavit addressing the matters raised.
