What is the law on legal professional privilege?

The Solicitors Rule 2007 does not contain a specific rule about legal professional privilege (or ‘client legal privilege’ as it also known) but the common law is summarised as at July 2007 in the Commentary to s 3, the rule about confidentiality.

For more extensive coverage of this topic see the following reference sources:

• Australian Taxation Office Access and Information Gathering Manual Chapter 6: Legal Professional Privilege (LPP) – in particular Appendix A contains details of the application of LPP to the different sorts of documents likely to be found in solicitors’ offices

• Law Council of Australia: Federal Litigation Section - Client Legal Privilege Watch - includes case summaries

• Australian Law Reform Commission Report “Privilege in Perspective: Client Legal Privilege in Federal Investigations" – see Chapter 3: Overview of Client Legal Privilege (pp 77-115)