Hamzy v The Commissioner of Police; New South Wales Police Force [2021] NSWSC 1266

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Hamzy v The Commissioner of Police; New South Wales Police Force [2021] NSWSC 1266 Hearing dates: 15 – 16 June 2021, 1 July 2021 Decision date: 08 October 2021 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: Button J Decision: (1) The NSW police are granted access, and denied access, to the documents seized by search warrant, in accordance with this judgment. (2) Costs reserved. Catchwords: CRIMINAL PROCEDURE — privilege claimed over documents seized pursuant to search warrant —application for injunction prohibiting police access to documents — where parties agree that application falls under legal professional privilege, not client legal privilege — discussion of general principles — factual findings — granular analysis of almost 100 documents — where police granted access to some documents and some portions of documents Legislation Cited: Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) Cases Cited: Abbas v NSW Commissioner of Police; Hamzy v NSW Commissioner of Police [2019] NSWSC 1841 Esso Australia Resources Ltd v Federal Commissioner of Taxation (1999) 201 CLR 49; [1999] HCA 67 X7 v Australian Crime Commission (2013) 248 CLR 92; [2013] HCA 29 Texts Cited: J D Heydon, Cross on Evidence, 11th Australian edition (2017) LexisNexis Category: Procedural rulings Parties: Bassam Hamzy (Plaintiff) The Commissioner of Police, NSW Police Force (First Defendant) Martin Churchill (Second Defendant) Representation: Counsel: D Hawkins (Plaintiff) M Jaireth (Defendant)