Australia: Disclosure & Electronic Discovery & Privilege

When police contact you about a criminal investigation, understanding your rights and obligations becomes critical to protecting your legal position. This comprehensive guide examines what happens during police investigations, whether you should participate in interviews, and how early legal advice can significantly impact the outcome of your case.

Under Queensland's Uniform Civil Procedure Rules, parties to civil litigation face automatic and continuing obligations to disclose all documents in their possession or control that are directly relevant to disputed allegations. This comprehensive guide examines the scope of disclosure duties, the meaning of key concepts like possession, control and direct relevance, and how courts exercise their powers to manage the disclosure process in modern litigation involving both traditional and electronic evidence.

This recent Federal Court decision serves as a timely reminder about privilege over third-party investigations and the documents created during such investigations which may be sought in subsequent litigation.

Case clarifies the limits of RTI access when tribunal orders and court procedures apply, providing important guidance for agencies, applicants and legal practitioners.

Whilst not fatal to a determination, it is wrong as a matter of law to strictly apply the Cardno test.

The obligation on parties to provide full and frank disclosure continues throughout the proceedings until the dispute has been resolved.

Anyone engaging in court proceedings should be aware of the Harman undertaking & its applicability to documents in proceedings.

In the defamation case, the court did not need to place weight on the expert evidence of the forensic lipreader.

Difficulties which can arise when an employer and a third party tortfeasor are sued in respect of a workplace accident.