On 19/05/2013,
you requested for the version in force on 19/05/2013
incorporating all amendments published on or before 19/05/2013.
The closest version currently available is that of 20/12/1997.
128.
—(1) No advocate or solicitor shall at any time be permitted, unless with his client’s express consent, to disclose any communication made to him in the course and for the purpose of his employment as such advocate or solicitor by or on behalf of his client, or to state the contents or condition of any document with which he has become acquainted in the course and for the purpose of his professional employment, or to disclose any advice given by him to his client in the course and for the purpose of such employment.
(2) Nothing in this section shall protect from disclosure —
(a)
any such communication made in furtherance of any illegal purpose;
(b)
any fact observed by any advocate or solicitor in the course of his employment as such showing that any crime or fraud has been committed since the commencement of his employment.
(3) It is immaterial whether the attention of such advocate or solicitor was or was not directed to such fact by or on behalf of his client.
Explanation .—The obligation stated in this section continues after the employment has ceased.
Illustrations
(a)
A, a client, says to B, a solicitor: “I have committed forgery and I wish you to defend me”.
As the defence of a man known to be guilty is not a criminal purpose this communication is protected from disclosure.
(b)
A, a client, says to B, a solicitor: “I wish to obtain possession of property by the use of a forged deed on which I request you to sue”.
This communication being made in furtherance of a criminal purpose is not protected from disclosure.
(c)
A, being charged with embezzlement, retains B, a solicitor, to defend him. In the course of the proceedings B observes that an entry has been made in A’s account-book, charging A with the sum said to have been embezzled, which entry was not in the book at the commencement of his employment.
This being a fact observed by B in the course of his employment, showing that a fraud has been committed since the commencement of the proceedings, it is not protected from disclosure.