CORELLI & BERONI

In the Family Court of Australia, before Tree J, the matter of *Corelli & Beroni* concerned applications by both the de facto wife and the de facto husband. The de facto wife sought disclosure of her de facto husband’s previous solicitor’s file, alleging waiver of legal professional privilege. The de facto husband sought to dismiss the de facto wife's application and also sought to dismiss the de facto wife's application for a witness to appear at trial by telephone.

The primary legal issues before the court were whether legal professional privilege over the de facto husband's solicitor's file had been waived by his conduct, and if so, whether such waiver would result in forensic unfairness to the de facto wife. Additionally, the court considered whether it would be unjust to allow a witness to appear at trial by telephone, given the materiality of their evidence and the potential for their credibility to be in issue.

Tree J found that the de facto husband's conduct was not inconsistent with maintaining confidentiality in relation to his solicitor's file, and therefore, legal professional privilege had not been waived. The court also determined that permitting the claim for privilege would not create any forensic unfairness to the de facto wife. Regarding the application for a witness to appear by telephone, the court concluded that it would be unjust to allow this given the witness's evidence was material to the determination of the trial and their credibility might be in issue.

Consequently, both the de facto husband's Amended Application in a Case filed on 7 September 2017 and the de facto wife's Application in a Case filed on 8 September 2017 were dismissed.