If in the course of acting for a client a lawyer has any dealings with any form of public authority then it is likely that those dealings will be recorded on the files of that authority, for example letters written to them will be retained in their files.
Those files will then in turn be subject to a right of many members of the public to seek access to them under the Freedom of Information Legislation.
Clients therefore need to be aware that whenever they have dealings, either personally or through a lawyer, with any form of public authority there is rarely any absolute guarantee of confidentiality of those dealings with the public authority.
