Cornett and Hext (No 2)

In *Cornett and Hext (No 2)*, Williams J of the Family Court of Australia considered a dispute concerning the waiver of legal professional privilege. The husband had sought to inspect documents produced by Q Lawyers pursuant to a subpoena, and the wife contended that certain statements made by her and her counsel during evidence and cross-examination were inconsistent with maintaining the confidentiality of her communications with her former lawyers, thereby waiving privilege.

The central legal issue before the court was whether the wife had, through her conduct and the statements of her counsel, waived her legal professional privilege over communications with her former solicitors. This required an examination of the common law principles governing waiver of privilege in the context of family law proceedings.

Williams J determined that the wife's actions and those of her counsel did not amount to a waiver of legal professional privilege. The court found that the statements made were not so inconsistent with the maintenance of confidentiality as to infer a waiver. Consequently, the court made orders granting the wife's solicitors leave to inspect the documents produced by Q Lawyers, with the ability to redact any material outside the scope of the subpoena. Following this inspection, the documents were to be released for inspection by all parties, subject to the wife's solicitors notifying the other parties of the inspection. All other interim applications were dismissed.