Renton and Queensland Law Society Inc.

Application number:
2001 S0097
Decision date:
Friday, Aug 31, 2001

Renton and Queensland Law Society Inc.
 (2001 S0097, 31 August 2001) 

The applicant was in dispute with his former solicitor and sought access to various documents provided to Law Claims (the former insurance arm of the Queensland Law Society) by that solicitor.  The documents had been provided to Law Claims pursuant to the solicitor's contractual obligations under his insurance agreement, and a legal duty of confidence was imposed on Law Claims with respect to their use. 

The Deputy Information Commissioner found that all documents provided to Law Claims as part of the insurance scheme were exempt from disclosure to the applicant under s.46(1)(a) of the FOI Act, applying the principles established in B and Brisbane North Regional Health Authority (1994) 1 QAR 279. 

In addition, applying the principles discussed in Price and Nominal Defendant (1999) 5 QAR 80, he also found that documents on the solicitor's original file, which had been returned to the solicitor, were not ‘documents of an agency’ (i.e., of the Queensland Law Society) as defined by s.7 of the FOI Act.