Descôteaux v. Mierzwinski
Encyclopedia
Descôteaux et al. v. Mierzwinski, [1982] 1 S.C.R. 860 is a leading Supreme Court of Canada
decision on solicitor-client privilege
. The Court reaffirmed the opinion in R. v. Solosky that privilege was a substantive right that even existed outside of a proceeding.
Lamer described the privilege as:
He stated that were a law interferes with the right to privilege then the privilege must prevail except for where it is absolutely necessary in order to achieve the purpose of the enabling legislation.
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
decision on solicitor-client privilege
Solicitor-client privilege
In common law jurisdictions, legal professional privilege protects all communications between a professional legal adviser and his or her clients from being disclosed without the permission of the client...
. The Court reaffirmed the opinion in R. v. Solosky that privilege was a substantive right that even existed outside of a proceeding.
Background
The police were investigating the legal aid bureau in Montreal in relation to a charge on Marcellein Ledoux for falsely stating his financial status in order to qualify for the services. The police had a search warrant seize the records from the legal aid interview with Ledoux and the legal aid application he filled out. The clinic appealed the seizure on the basis that the documents were protected by solitictor-client privilege.Opinion of the Court
Justice Lamer, writing for a unanimous Court, held that the documents were wrongly seized as they were protected by privilege.Lamer described the privilege as:
- all information which a person must provide in order to obtain legal advice and which is given in confidence for that purpose enjoys the privileges attaching to confidentiality. This confidentiality attaches to all communications made within the framework of the solicitor-client relationship
He stated that were a law interferes with the right to privilege then the privilege must prevail except for where it is absolutely necessary in order to achieve the purpose of the enabling legislation.