Does litigation privilege apply to communications between lawyers and third parties?

Litigation privilege is not restricted to communications between a lawyer and client, but may attach to communications with third parties where the dominant purpose of the communication is preparation for litigation. In Blank v. Canada (Minister of Justice), 2006 SCC 39, Fish J. wrote at para. 27: Litigation privilege, on the other hand, is not directed at, still less, restricted to, communications between solicitor and client. It contemplates, as well, communications between a solicitor and third parties or, in the case of an unrepresented litigant, between the litigant and third parties. Its object is to ensure the efficacy of the adversarial process and not to promote the solicitor-client relationship. And to achieve this purpose, parties to litigation, represented or not, must be left to prepare their contending positions in private, without adversarial interference and without fear of premature disclosure.

Unlike solicitor-client or legal advice privilege, litigation privilege does not depend on the communications being confidential in nature: First, solicitor-client privilege applies only to confidential communications between the client and his solicitor. Litigation privilege, on the other hand, applies to communications of a non-confidential nature between the solicitor and third parties and even includes material of a non-communicative nature. R.J. Sharpe, “Claiming Privilege in the Discovery Process”, in Law in Transition: Evidence, [1984] Special Lect. L.S.U.C. 163, at pp. 164-65, as quoted in Blank v. Canada, at para. 28.