Federal Court of Australia
FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA
Watson v Schreuder Partners Lawyers [2020] FCA 1044 File number: NSD 584 of 2020
Judge: LEE J
Date of judgment: 15 July 2020
Catchwords: EQUITY – power of a court of equity to grant a bill of discovery where production of documents is necessary to facilitate administration of justice in a prospective class action REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDINGS – power to seek preliminary discovery in a representative capacity DISCOVERY – application for preliminary discovery pursuant to FCR 7.23 – prospective applicant alleging legal costs and disbursements charged by prospective respondent solicitors in personal injury litigation excessive – seeking disclosure of files of former and current clients of the solicitors in order investigate the commencement of a possible class action – interpretation of FCR 7.23 should not be limited to exclude documents which may go to relief that is being sought in a representative capacity but application otherwise does not engage rule – further barrier is that discretionary considerations militate against relief – application dismissed
Legislation: Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth) s 5, Pt IVA Federal Court Rules 2011 (Cth) rr 1.32, 7.23 New South Wales Common Law Procedure Act 1857 (NSW) ss 23–4
Cases cited: Angell v Angell (1822) 57 ER 33 Bent v Young (1838) 59 ER 327 BMW Australia Ltd v Brewster [2019] HCA 45; (2019) 94 ALJR 51 Bonham v Iluka Resources Limited [2015] FCA 713 Cardale v Watkins (1820) 56 ER 801 Dyczynski v Gibson [2020] FCAFC 120 Pfizer Ireland Pharmaceuticals v Samsung Bioepis AU Pty Ltd [2017] FCAFC 193; (2017) 257 FCR 62 Szymczak v Balijepall [2019] FCA 234 Timbercorp Finance Pty Ltd (in liquidation) v Collins [2016] HCA 44; (2016) 259 CLR 212 Bray E, The Principles and Practice of Discovery (Reaves & Turner, 1885) Goldstein A K, 'A Short History of Discovery' (1981) 10 Anglo-American Law Review 257 Heydon J D, Leeming M J and Turner P G, Meagher, Gummow & Lehane's Equity: Doctrines & Remedies (5th ed, Butterworths, 2015)
We try to embed the page this law was scraped from. If the site blocks framing, you still get the link and a local excerpt.
Last checked with source on —
Checking whether the official page can be embedded…
Plain-English simplify of this law: a short summary, key points, and both sides of the argument. Generated on first view via Replicate, then cached. Vote on what helps your study.
No study brief is cached for this law yet. Sign up to generate a plain-English brief.
Sign up to generate