New South Wales Consolidated Acts

CIVIL PROCEDURE ACT 2005 - SECT 30

30 Privilege

(cf Act No 52 1970, section 110P; Act No 9 1973, section 164F; Act No 11 1970, section 21Q)

(1) In this section,
"mediation session" includes any steps taken in the course of making arrangements for the session or in the course of the follow-up of a session.

(2) The same privilege with respect to defamation as exists with respect to judicial proceedings and a document produced in judicial proceedings exists with respect to--

(a) a mediation session, or

(b) a document or other material sent to or produced to a mediator, or sent to or produced at the court or the registry of the court, for the purpose of enabling a mediation session to be arranged.

(3) The privilege conferred by subsection (2) extends only to a publication made--

(a) at a mediation session, or

(b) in a document or other material sent to or produced to a mediator, or sent to or produced at the court or the registry of the court, for the purpose of enabling a mediation session to be arranged, or

(c) in circumstances referred to in section 31.

(4) Subject to section 29 (2)--

(a) evidence of anything said or of any admission made in a mediation session is not admissible in any proceedings before any court or other body, and

(b) a document prepared for the purposes of, or in the course of, or as a result of, a mediation session, or any copy of such a document, is not admissible in evidence in any proceedings before any court or other body.

(5) Subsection (4) does not apply with respect to any evidence or document--

(a) if the persons in attendance at, or identified during, the mediation session and, in the case of a document, all persons specified in the document, consent to the admission of the evidence or document, or

(b) in proceedings commenced with respect to any act or omission in connection with which a disclosure has been made as referred to in section 31 (c).