Plaintiff Lawyer Copies of MSP and Pharmanet Printouts Subject to Litigation Privilege
Reasons for judgment were published today by the BC Supreme Court, New Westminster Registry, finding that plaintiff’s counsel was correct in listing ‘copies’ of MSP and pharmanet printouts as privileged and refusing to produce a copy to the Defendant.
In today’s case (Kang v. Sahota) the plaintiff was advancing an injury claim and in the course of doing so plaintiff’s counsel ordered copies of their clients MSP and Pharmanet printouts. These were used as tools in deciding what further records to order to advance the claim. The Defendant brought an application for production of these records. The Court dismissed this noting that counsel was correct to list these as privileged and the application should seek production of these directly from the Ministry of Health. In reaching this decision Mr. Justice Riley provided the following reasons: