The police have a search warrant for the files of one of my clients. What do I do?

You have a duty to your client to maintain confidentiality and legal professional privilege (‘privilege’), even if you no longer act for the client, or you can't contact them for instructions, or even if they are dead (their personal representatives should be consulted for instructions).

Privilege is more limited in scope than confidentiality. For details of each, refer to Confidentiality and legal professional privilege (see related links below), the Solicitors Rule 2007 s 3 and its Commentary. 

You should first satisfy yourself that the warrant is valid and take a copy of it.

Privilege belongs to the client and can only be waived by the client. Immediately inform the client of the warrant and seek instructions. In the absence of instructions, a duty to preserve privilege still exists. If you are unsure about a particular document, you should claim privilege and let the court decide (disputed claims of privilege will ultimately be referred to the court) as an error by you may leave you liable to your client.

Where  separate legal representation in relation to the matter exists then seek instructions about waiver or assertion of privilege by the client through those other solicitors.  Those solicitors may be provided with a copy of the relevant file(s) on receipt of authority.

See the following resources for further information:

- Queensland Police Service ‘Execution of search warrants on premises of lawyers’, s 2.8.5, QPS Operational Procedures Manual.
- Australian Federal Police Execution of AFP Search Warrants on Lawyers' Premises,  Law Council of Australia website or Section 3 of the Solicitors Rule.
- Supreme Court Practice Direction No. 25 of 1995 Execution of search warrants on solicitors' offices and barristers' chambers
- Legal Services Commissioner v Winning [2008] LPT 13 – charge 1 (tipping off clients about impending execution of search warrant). See also the article about this case ‘Raid tip-off – saintly or sinful?’ in "Related Material" below.