Financial Accountability Regime Act 2023

This section applies if:

under this Act, a person requires a lawyer;

to give information; or

to produce a book, account or document; and

either:

giving the information would involve disclosing; or

the book, account or document contains;

The lawyer is entitled to refuse to comply with the requirement unless:

if the person to whom, or by or on behalf of whom, the communication was made is a body corporate that is under administration or is being wound up—the administrator or the liquidator of the body; or

otherwise—the person to whom, or by or on behalf of whom, the communication was made;

If the lawyer so refuses, they must, as soon as practicable, give to the person who made the requirement a written notice setting out:

if the lawyer knows the name of the person to whom, or by or on behalf of whom, the communication was made—that name and address; and

if subparagraph (1)(a)(i) applies and the communication was made in writing—sufficient particulars to identify the document containing the communication; and

if subparagraph (1)(a)(ii) applies—sufficient particulars to identify the book, account or document, or the part of the book, account or document, containing the communication.

A person commits an offence if the person refuses or fails to comply with a requirement under this section.