Daily Archives: 17/07/2017

Yes, a lawyer has a duty to advise and protect a client against unnecessary expense – including the unnecessary expense of instructing the lawyer to do legal work that is “entirely disproportionate to the complexity of the case and the nature of the matters in issue in the proceedings:  Judge O’Brien of the Family Court of Western Australia in Taronite and Mabra (Costs) [2017] FCWA 72, [103]-[108].  In this case  the parties spent in excess of $570,000 in legal fees.  See the case in Jade at https://jade.io/article/533469

Lawyers beware!  Client legal privilege does not protect communications that were made in furtherance of an illegal scheme, even where the lawyers are unaware of the illegal scheme being pursued by their clients.

In Aucare Dairy Pty Ltd v Huang [2017] FCA 746 O’Callaghan J of the Federal Court considered the authorities and noted that they show illegality to include “fraud on justice” and conduct that would “frustrate the processes of the law”.

On the facts of this case, the Court was satisfied that the applicants had established a strong prima facie case that the respondents engaged in wrongful and fraudulent conduct contrary to various legal duties.  The respondents had to produce communications with their solicitors.

The Jade report is at https://jade.io/article/539836