What is the test for contempt of court in the context of an order for production of documents to a solicitor?
British Columbia, Canada
The following excerpt is from Schober v. Tyson Creek Hydro Corporation, 2014 BCCA 12 (CanLII):
This principle led to the expression of the rule at page 304 of the judgment in Home Office v. Harman in the following terms: …an order for production of documents to a solicitor on behalf of a party to civil litigation is made upon the implied undertaking given by the solicitor personally to the court (of which he is an officer) that he himself will not use or allow the documents or copies of them to be used for any collateral or ulterior purpose of his own, his client or anyone else; and any breach of that implied undertaking is a contempt of court by the solicitor himself. Save as respects the gravity of the contempt no distinction is to be drawn between those documents which have and those which have not been admitted in evidence; to make use for some collateral or ulterior purpose of the special advantage obtained by having possession of copies of any of an adverse party’s documents obtained upon discovery is, in my view, a contempt of court.
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