Evidence Act 2006

Admissibility rules, privilege, and confidentiality - Privilege and confidentiality - Privilege

55: Privilege and solicitors’ trust accounts

You could also call this:

"Protecting solicitors' trust account records"

This section is about documents that solicitors keep for trust accounts. You might see these documents if a solicitor is handling money for you. The documents can include books of account or accounting records.

These documents are kept by a solicitor who is dealing with trust account money, which is subject to section 112 of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006. They can also be kept by a nominee company that follows practice rules made by the Council of the New Zealand Law Society, which are made under section 96 of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006.

If the police need to get some of these documents, they can get a search warrant from a District Court Judge under section 198 of the Summary Proceedings Act 1957. This means they can look at the documents and use them as evidence in a criminal case.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

This page was last updated on 29 June 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM393662.

Topics:

Crime and justice > Courts and legal help

54: Privilege for communications with legal advisers, or

"Keeping conversations with lawyers private"

56: Privilege for preparatory materials for proceedings, or

"Keeping court case preparations private"

Part 2Admissibility rules, privilege, and confidentiality
Privilege and confidentiality: Privilege

55Privilege and solicitors’ trust accounts

This section applies to documents that are books of account or accounting records kept—
by a solicitor in relation to any trust account money that is subject to section 112 of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006; or
by a nominee company that—
1. is subject to practice rules made by the Council of the New Zealand Law Society pursuant to section 96 of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006; and
2. is operated by a barrister and solicitor or an incorporated law firm as a nominee in respect of securities and documents of title held for clients.

Section 54 does not prevent, limit, or affect—
the issue by a District Court Judge of a search warrant under section 198 of the Summary Proceedings Act 1957 in respect of a document to which this section applies; or
the execution of that warrant in respect of a document to which this section applies; or
the admissibility, in a criminal proceeding for an offence described in the warrant, of any evidence that relates to the contents of a document obtained under the warrant.