Okewood Pty Ltd v Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police (No 2) [2020] FCA 1363

Okewood Pty Ltd v Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police (No 2) [2020] FCA 1363

The Court held that the applicants had breached the order requiring service of the LPP Schedule and that neither the practical issues about excluded or hard copy documents nor the generalised allegations of prior breaches justified further deferral of the LPP Schedule or an open-ended conferral order delaying access to Non-LPP documents. However, because quarantining of Federal Agents had been foreshadowed previously, fairness required that the applicants be given seven days to bring a properly formulated application to vary the order permitting inspection of the Non-LPP data set.

Jurisdiction
Australia
Judgment Date
22 September 2020
Procedural Posture
Practice and Procedure; Case Management Concerning Seized Documents, Forensic Data Reduction and Legal Professional Privilege Claims / Urgent Interlocutory Application Heard on 21 September 2020; Orders Made on 22 September 2020
Outcome
The applicants' application to defer access pending conferral was not granted as sought; the LPP Schedule was ordered to be provided forthwith, and the applicants were given until 30 September 2020 to file and serve any application concerning alleged limits on the respondent's inspection rights over the Non-LPP data...
Legal Topics
['inspection of Seized Documents and Data' 'non LPP Data Set' 'variation of Federal Court Orders' 'alleged Breaches of Undertakings and Court Orders' 'forensic Data Reduction']
['practice and Procedure' 'legal Professional Privilege' 'search Warrants' 'case Management'] ['inspection of Seized Documents and Data' 'non LPP Data Set' 'variation of Federal Court Orders' 'alleged Breaches of Undertakings and Court Orders' 'forensic Data Reduction']

Case Brief

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Procedural Posture

Practice and Procedure; Case Management Concerning Seized Documents, Forensic Data Reduction and Legal Professional Privilege Claims / Urgent Interlocutory Application Heard on 21 September 2020; Orders Made on 22 September 2020

Legal Issues

  1. 1 ['Whether the applicants should be permitted to defer providing the LPP Schedule to the respondent pending conferral about inspection issues.' 'Whether practical issues about excluded documents and hard copy documents required judicial intervention or justified delaying the LPP Schedule.' "Whether alleged breaches of undertakings, an Addendum or the Okewood Orders could justify restricting the respondent's access to Non-LPP documents." 'Whether the applicants should have an opportunity to bring a properly drafted application to vary order 6(f) of the orders of 4 August 2020.']

Ratio Decidendi

The Court held that the applicants had breached the order requiring service of the LPP Schedule and that neither the practical issues about excluded or hard copy documents nor the generalised allegations of prior breaches justified further deferral of the LPP Schedule or an open-ended conferral order delaying access to Non-LPP documents. However, because quarantining of Federal Agents had been foreshadowed previously, fairness required that the applicants be given seven days to bring a properly formulated application to vary the order permitting inspection of the Non-LPP data set.

Court Disposition

The applicants' application to defer access pending conferral was not granted as sought; the LPP Schedule was ordered to be provided forthwith, and the applicants were given until 30 September 2020 to file and serve any application concerning alleged limits on the respondent's inspection rights over the Non-LPP data...

Orders

  • ['Pursuant to s 23 and s 37P of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth), r 1.32 and r 1.36 of the Federal Court Rules 2011 (Cth), these orders and the reasons for judgment in support of these orders are made and published from Chambers.' 'The LPP Schedule (referred to in orders 3 and 4 of the orders of 4...