Day 255 - 23 May 96 - Page 56
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2 MR. RAMPTON: That is right. But I would submit, if I had to,
3 that that would be so. It seems there is a case --
4 I cannot remember where it is now -- which says if the
5 client gets an agent to do something for the purposes of
6 litigation, contemplated or pending, so the client can go
7 and get the advice from the solicitor. In fact, he never
8 does so and the document never reaches the solicitor. It
9 is still privileged.
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11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: OK. What I was asking, on what you told me,
12 that is all very interesting.
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14 MR. RAMPTON: I agree.
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16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: But it does not matter in this case because
17 they were obtained for and passed to the solicitor anyway.
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19 MR. RAMPTON: Yes. That is subject to absolutely 100 per cent
20 confirmation. But that is my belief, yes.
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22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You can check that. The point is I may not
23 have to worry about the extension which came as news to me
24 and it appears may have been news to you as well.
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26 MR. RAMPTON: It was.
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28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you say, rightly or wrongly, that it is
29 covered by the general rule as to communications with the
30 solicitor for the purpose of obtaining advice.
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32 MS. STEEL: The extension?
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34 MR. RAMPTON: No, not the extension.
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36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I will spend a minute or so, so you can take
37 it away with you in your minds. What I thought
38 Mr. Rampton's submissions would be that all information
39 about inquiry agents' investigations and observations is
40 privileged because, he would argue, it was obtained for
41 passing to the Plaintiffs' solicitors and, in fact, passed
42 to the Plaintiffs' solicitors for the purpose of obtaining
43 advice in relation to legal proceedings which were
44 contemplated and, in so far as it related to matters after
45 30th September, 1990, had, in fact, been instituted.
46
47 Then I anticipated that he would go on and say: So all
48 information about such investigations, all such information
49 is covered by privilege. The moment he proposes to call a
50 witness about that information, or put in a document about
51 that information, or show me a photograph which gives some
52 of that information, he, in fact, waives privilege so it is
53 no longer covered by privilege; and rather than wait until
54 a witness goes into the witness box and Mr. Rampton puts in
55 his statement or asks questions about it, which would
56 result in waiver of information about that inquiry agent's
57 investigations, it is obviously much more convenient to
58 say, "I waive that now well ahead of time", and you can
59 have relevant discovery to it, and so on.
60
