PASCOT & PASCOT

In the matter of *Pascot & Pascot*, the husband sought to maintain legal professional privilege over certain documents, while the wife sought their disclosure. The dispute concerned the extent to which the husband had waived privilege by disclosing the substance of legal advice he had received. The case was heard by Le Poer Trench J.

The central legal issue before the court was whether the husband's prior conduct, specifically the disclosure of the substance and effect of legal advice received from his former solicitors, constituted a waiver of legal professional privilege over related documents. The court was required to determine the legal principles governing waiver of privilege in such circumstances and apply them to the facts presented.

Le Poer Trench J applied the reasoning of Tamberlin J in a previous matter, which held that disclosing the conclusion or recommended course of action within legal advice, even without revealing the underlying reasoning, can impute a waiver of privilege. The court found that the husband had disclosed the substance of the advice, including the interpretation he had been advised was correct, thereby waiving privilege over the relevant parts of that advice. Consequently, the court ordered the husband to make available for inspection documents from his former lawyers' file that noted instructions prior to the advice being given and documents containing the advice itself, or parts thereof, to proceed to obtain agreement with the wife for a financial agreement. The court also made provision for further inspection by the judge if a dispute arose regarding the completeness of the disclosure.