Western Australian Current Acts

EVIDENCE ACT 1906 - SECT 20E

20E .         Loss of professional confidential relationship protection: misconduct

        (1)         In this section —

        misconduct , in relation to a person (the confider ) who makes a communication in confidence to another person, includes any of the following —

            (a)         an offence committed by the confider;

            (b)         an act or omission on the part of the confider that renders the confider liable to a civil penalty;

            (c)         deceit, dishonesty, inappropriate partiality or a breach of trust on the part of the confider;

            (d)         the confider acting corruptly, or corruptly failing to act, in any capacity;

            (e)         the confider corruptly taking advantage of the confider’s position to obtain a benefit for the confider or another person or to cause a detriment to another person;

            (f)         the confider engaging in conduct that adversely affects, or could adversely affect, directly or indirectly, the honest or impartial performance of the functions of any person in any capacity;

            (g)         misuse, on the part of the confider, of information or material that the confider has acquired in any capacity, whether the misuse is to obtain a benefit for the confider or any other person or to cause a detriment to another person;

            (h)         conduct providing reasonable grounds for the termination of the confider’s employment;

                  (i)         conduct providing reasonable grounds for disciplining the confider in relation to unsatisfactory professional conduct or professional misconduct, or the breach of a professional standard, in relation to the confider’s profession, whether or not the confider is a member of the body that prescribed the standard.

        (2)         The protection provisions (PCR) do not prevent the adducing of evidence of a communication made or the contents of a document prepared in the furtherance of misconduct by a person who makes a communication in confidence to another person.

        (3)         For the purposes of this section, if the misconduct is a fact in issue and there are reasonable grounds for believing that —

            (a)         the misconduct occurred; and

            (b)         a communication was made or document prepared in furtherance of the misconduct,

                the court may find that the communication was so made or document so prepared.

        [Section 20E inserted: No. 31 of 2012 s. 5.]