Shuvkrem Group Pty Ltd v Double Bay Law Pty Ltd

Shuvkrem Group Pty Ltd sued Double Bay Law Pty Ltd, claiming breach of fiduciary duty, legal malpractice, and breach of contract. The case was heard in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Shuvkrem sought an order for the inspection of documents held by Double Bay Law to determine if they were privileged. Double Bay Law objected to the inspection, arguing that the documents were protected by legal professional privilege (LPP). The court had to decide whether it could inspect the documents and if the privilege claimed by Double Bay Law was valid.

The court held that it had the power to inspect documents under section 133 of the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) where a question about a document arose under Part 10 of the Act. The primary purpose of inspecting the documents was to ascertain whether the privilege claim was established. The court found that it was appropriate to inspect the documents to determine if they were privileged, as the evidence of privilege was unclear. The court concluded that the documents were not privileged, as they did not meet the criteria for legal professional privilege.

The court ordered Double Bay Law to disclose the documents to Shuvkrem and set aside the objection to the inspection. The court also dismissed Double Bay Law's application for a stay of proceedings and ordered them to pay Shuvkrem's costs of the application. Shuvkrem was also granted an order for the inspection of further documents held by Double Bay Law to determine if they were privileged.