PAGE 06 BARTIER PERRY LAWYERS - EMPOWERING INSIGHT The fair balance to be struck is between the interests of the parties seeking to review the documents, and the party claiming confidentiality. PRIVILEGE AND CONFIDENTIALITY SUBPOENAS AND SENSITIVE INFORMATION Do you know what options you have available to you in preparing documents to be produced in court? Especially if these documents are of a sensitive nature or record communications between you and your lawyers? So far, we have examined the effect of subpoenas, and the grounds upon which you might ask the court to set one aside. This instalment deals with the two options available to you if you wish to protect any sensitive information, including documents recording communications between you and your lawyers, and information containing commercially sensitive information. You should follow a broad process in preparing documents for court as follows: - Documents answering the categories sought in the subpoena should be collated by you; - Any documents that contain communications with your lawyers, or recording commercially sensitive information, should be separated out from all the other documents into their respective bundles; - You should end up with three bundles: (1) for general access following production; (2) marked “Subject to legal professional privilege”; and (3) marked “Subject to confidentiality”; and - You can then seal each bundle in an envelope or in some other way and produce to the court. It is safer to separate the documents attracting legal professional privilege from those that are commercially sensitive, as the issues that arise for each claim to protect that information are different. “ ”