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Customs and Excise Act 2018

Customs powers - Powers in relation to documents

254: Legally privileged communications

You could also call this:

"Keeping private conversations with your lawyer safe"

Illustration for Customs and Excise Act 2018

When Customs officers are looking at documents, you have the right to keep some information private. This is called legal professional privilege and it applies to confidential communications between you and your lawyer. It only applies if the communication is not about doing something illegal or wrong.

If the information is about money, like payments or income, it is not private if it is in a book or account kept by your lawyer for a trust account. A trust account is a special account that lawyers use to hold money for their clients, and its meaning is explained in section 6 of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006.

If you do not want to share some information because you think it is private, you can say so. Then, you or the Customs officer can ask a District Court Judge to decide if you are right. The Judge might ask to see the information to make a decision.

In this situation, a lawyer is a barrister or solicitor of the High Court, and it can also be a law firm that has one of these lawyers as a partner or owner.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM7039558.

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Part 4Customs powers
Powers in relation to documents

254Legally privileged communications

  1. Any information or document is, for the purposes of sections 251 and 252, privileged from disclosure if—

  2. it is a confidential communication to which legal professional privilege attaches; and
    1. it is not made or brought into existence for the purpose of committing or furthering the commission of an illegal or wrongful act.

      1. However, any information or document that consists wholly of payments, income, expenditure, or financial transactions of a person (whether a lawyer, his or her client, or any other person) is not privileged from disclosure if it is contained in, or comprises the whole or part of, any book, account, statement, or other record prepared or kept by the lawyer in connection with a trust account.

      2. If a person refuses to disclose any information or document on the ground that it is subject to legal professional privilege, a Customs officer or that person may apply to a District Court Judge for an order determining whether the claim of privilege is valid.

      3. For the purpose of determining an application under subsection (3), a District Court Judge may demand that the information or document be produced to him or her.

      4. In this section,—

        lawyer—

        1. means a barrister or solicitor of the High Court; and
          1. includes a firm (including an incorporated law firm) in which that lawyer is, or is held out to be, a partner, director, or shareholder

            trust account has the meaning given to that term in section 6 of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006.

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