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Evidence (National Uniform Legislation) Act 2011
122Loss of client legal privilege – consent and related matters
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122 Loss of client legal privilege – consent and related matters
(1) This Division does not prevent the adducing of evidence given with
the consent of the client or party concerned.
(2) Subject to subsection (5), this Division does not prevent the
adducing of evidence if the client or party concerned has acted in a
way that is inconsistent with the client or party objecting to the
adducing of the evidence because it would result in a disclosure of
a kind referred to in section 118, 119 or 120.
(3) Without limiting subsection (2), a client or party is taken to have so
acted if:
(a) the client or party knowingly and voluntarily disclosed the
substance of the evidence to another person; or
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(b) the substance of the evidence has been disclosed with the
express or implied consent of the client or party.
(4) The reference in subsection (3)(a) to a knowing and voluntary
disclosure does not include a reference to a disclosure by a person
who was, at the time of the disclosure, an employee or agent of the
client or party or of a lawyer of the client or party unless the
employee or agent was authorised by the client, party or lawyer to
make the disclosure.
(5) A client or party is not taken to have acted in a manner inconsistent
with the client or party objecting to the adducing of the evidence
merely because:
(a) the substance of the evidence has been disclosed:
(i) in the course of making a confidential communication or
preparing a confidential document; or
(ii) as a result of duress or deception; or
(iii) under compulsion of law; or
(iv) if the client or party is a body established by, or a person
holding an office under, an Australian law – to the
Minister, or the Minister of the Commonwealth, the State
or Territory, administering the law, or part of the law,
under which the body is established or the office is held;
or
(b) of a disclosure by a client to another person if the disclosure
concerns a matter in relation to which the same lawyer is
providing, or is to provide, professional legal services to both
the client and the other person; or
(c) of a disclosure to a person with whom the client or party had,
at the time of the disclosure, a common interest relating to the
proceeding or an anticipated or pending proceeding in an
Australian court or a foreign court.
(6) This Division does not prevent the adducing of evidence of a
document that a witness has used to try to revive the witness's
memory about a fact or opinion or has used as mentioned in
section 32 (Attempts to revive memory in court) or 33 (Evidence
given by police officers).
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