Huda and Huda & Anor

In Huda and Huda & Anor, the Court addressed an application in an appeal concerning the employment of a former employee of the respondent's solicitors, who had resigned and joined the solicitors for the appellant. The respondent sought orders to restrain the appellant's solicitors from continuing to act due to the former employee's access to the file. The central issue before the Court was whether the former employee's access to the file constituted a breach of confidentiality that would warrant the restraint of the solicitors from continuing to act.

The Court examined the legal principles governing the restraint of legal practitioners from acting in cases where there is a potential conflict of interest due to the former employee's access to confidential information. It noted the established test that a practitioner who ceases to act for one party and continues to act for another must be restrained if there is evidence that confidential communications have been made by the former client. The Court emphasised that the threshold for proving such confidential communications is relatively low and that the former client need only demonstrate a prima facie case that confidential information may have been disclosed.

The Court found that the respondent had failed to meet the required threshold. There was no evidence presented that the former employee had received confidential information from the client, and the respondent could not identify the nature of the information that might have been received. The Court concluded that mere access to a file did not suffice to establish a breach of confidentiality. Consequently, the application to restrain the appellant's solicitors from continuing to act was dismissed.

The Court also addressed the issue of costs, noting that the respondent had foreshadowed an application for costs against the applicant's solicitors personally. The Court ordered the respondent to file and serve an application for costs, together with written submissions, by a specific date. It further ordered the applicant, and her solicitors if an application for costs were made against them, to file and serve written submissions in relation to costs by another specified date. The form of the orders was subject to their entry in the Court's records.