Privilege

(i) Where a solicitor accepted a joint retainer from parties with potentially conflicting interests one client could insist as against the other that legal professional privilege attached to any of what passes between the solicitor and that client during the currency and in the course of the retainer. In order for joint privilege to arise the joint interest had to exist at the time that the communication came into existence. If the parties subsequently fell out and sued one another, neither of them could claim privilege as against the other in respect of any documents that were caught by the joint privilege, as the original joint interest was not destroyed by a subsequent disagreement between the parties.

Privilege could not be asserted as between partners in relation to any documents concerning the partnership’s affairs.

(ii) The iniquity principle that advice sought or given for the purpose of effecting iniquity was not privileged was founded upon public