Steven Issa v Michael Issa and Anastazija Balaz

Steven Issa, the plaintiff, brought proceedings against Michael Issa and Anastazija Balaz, the defendants, in relation to an agreement that was intended to resolve previous proceedings from 2006. The defendants objected to an order for discovery of documents, asserting that certain documents were protected by legal professional privilege. The dispute came before the court to determine the validity of these objections and whether there had been an implied waiver of privilege by the defendants.

The court was required to decide whether the defendants had waived their claim of privilege over the documents held by the former solicitor, and whether certain documents were indeed privileged. The defendants argued that the partners of the law firm responsible for drafting the agreement had breached their duty towards Anastazija Balaz, and that this constituted an implied waiver of privilege. The court needed to examine whether the claims made by the defendants were consistent with their assertion of privilege over the documents in question.

The court found that the claims advanced by the defendants were inconsistent with their claim of privilege over the documents held by the former solicitor. However, it was determined that the privilege was a joint privilege of both defendants and had not been implicitly waived by Michael Issa, the first defendant. Additionally, the court held that the documents in question, which were file notes of conversations between the solicitors for the defendants and the solicitor for the plaintiff in earlier proceedings or a third person, were not subject to legal professional privilege.

The court's findings meant that the defendants' objections to the discovery of certain documents were not upheld in their entirety. The privilege over some documents was recognised, but the court ruled that the defendants had not successfully demonstrated an implied waiver of privilege by the first defendant, nor had they shown that all the documents in question were privileged.