Potter and Brisbane City Council
(1993 L0009, 19 August 1994)
This case explains and illustrates principles relevant to determining whether legal advice given to a government agency by its own employee legal advisers attracts legal professional privilege, and hence exemption from disclosure under the FOI Act by virtue of s.43(1). The Information Commissioner considered whether the City Solicitor, an employee of the Brisbane City Council, had the necessary quality of “independence” so that his advice had an independent character notwithstanding the employment.
The Information Commissioner also considered (at paragraph 28) the applicant’s contention that legal professional privilege could not apply because the documents in issue were responsible for a deliberate abuse of statutory power, but found there was nothing before the Information Commissioner to suggest that there had been an abuse of statutory power.
