[co-author: Brendan Sigalet - Articling Student]
A litigation document management database does not have to be disclosed to the other side in a lawsuit, even where that leads to substantial expense and time consequences for a counterparty, the Federal Court of Appeal recently held in
Tk emlups]. The database is protected by litigation privilege.
Documents that are privileged do not have to be disclosed to the other side in a lawsuit or a freedom of information response. Several different types of privilege can apply to protect records, the most common of which are litigation privilege and solicitor-client privilege (legal advice privilege). Litigation privilege covers records created for the dominant purpose of existing or contemplated litigation, while solicitor-client privilege attaches to communications between lawyers and clients made in the course of obtaining legal advice. We have previously blogged on various aspects of privilege before (see our previous blogs written in F