N. Using E-mail and Solicitor-Client Privilege

• Author: Ted Tjaden
• Profession: National Director of Knowledge Management McMillan LLP
• Pages: 132-132

Page 132

Although e-mail has no direct application for hands-on legal research, it has revolutionized the ways in which lawyers communicate with each other and with clients. The advantages of e-mail are obvious: e-mail is inexpensive, easy to use, widely available, and instantaneous. E-mail also allows the sender to attach documents that can then be sent around the world to be retrieved, opened by the recipient, and sent back to the original sender with comments or amendments.

With these advantages comes a potential disadvantage: the very speed of e-mail raises the risk of the lawyer inadvertently (i) disclosing confidential information by accidentally sending the e-mail to an unintended recipient; or (ii) sending a message in haste that, if written in print, may have brought more thought and deliberation. Clearly, the risk exists that a lawyer could inadvertently waive a client’s right to privilege by sending an e-mail message to an unintended recipient.²⁴This may explain the increase in the use of standard "privileged and confidential" notices that are inserted in e-mails being sent by law firms (just in the same way that law firms include "privileged and...