Coroneos and Medical Board of Queensland

Coroneos and Medical Board of Queensland
(1999 S0022, 3 August 1999)

The matter in issue comprised correspondence from the respondent's solicitors to both the respondent and to an agent of the respondent, conveying legal advice, as well as segments of other documents containing a record or summary of that legal advice. 

The respondent decided that the matter in issue was exempt from disclosure to the applicant under s.43(1) of the FOI Act.  From the examination of the matter in issue, the Information Commissioner was satisfied that the correspondence from the respondent's solicitors was brought into existence for the sole purpose of providing professional legal advice or assistance to the respondent (or to an agent of the respondent), and that the other segments of matter in issue reproduced, or recorded the substance of, privileged legal advice which the respondent had obtained from its solicitors.  The Information Commissioner was therefore satisfied that the matter in issue attracted legal professional privilege, and that it qualified for exemption under s.43(1) of the FOI Act.