PICKARD & INGLE

In the Federal Circuit Court of Australia, Judge Bender considered an application by Mr Pickard seeking to restrain solicitors from continuing to act for the Respondent in property proceedings. Mr Pickard asserted that the solicitors held confidential information relevant to the proceedings which could be misused against him. The Respondent opposed the application, arguing that Mr Pickard had waived his entitlement to bring the application and that the prejudice to the Respondent in obtaining new solicitors would outweigh any prejudice to Mr Pickard if the application were dismissed.

The court was required to determine whether the solicitors should be restrained from acting for the Respondent, and in doing so, to consider the issues of waiver and the relevance of any confidential information held by the solicitors to the property proceedings. The court also had to weigh the potential prejudice to each party in its determination.

Judge Bender found that Mr Pickard had waived his entitlement to bring the application. Furthermore, the court determined that the confidential information held by the solicitors was not relevant to the property proceedings between the parties. Consequently, the application to restrain the solicitors from acting was dismissed.