BarTalk April 2001
Volume 13, Number 2

The Honourable Mr. Justice Scarth of the Supreme Court of BC on February 2 set aside an order by the former Information and Privacy Commissioner that instructed the Legal Services Society to release the names of top billers to the media.

The decision was the result of a judicial review requested by LSS in August 1999.

This matter concerned a January 1999 media request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPPA). A reporter asked LSS to name the five lawyers who billed the most for criminal cases and the five who billed most for immigration cases over an eight-month period in the previous year. LSS released the amounts billed but withheld the lawyers’ names based on concerns that releasing this information could violate solicitor-client privilege, and/or contravene protection of personal privacy.

The reporter asked then Information and Privacy Commissioner David Flaherty to review the Society’s decision, and in July 1999 he ruled LSS should release the names.

In his decision, the Honourable Mr. Justice Scarth (BC Supreme Court, docket A992300) found the commissioner had erred in law in his application of solicitor-client privilege (section 14 of the FOIPPA). He did not go on to consider arguments relating to section 22 on personal privacy. The commissioner’s ruling (322-1999) was set aside.

This article was originally published in the LSS News, February 28, 2001 issue. It is reprinted with the permission of the Legal Services Society of British Columbia.

This article was published in the April 2001 issue of BarTalk.