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29 November 2007 / Susan Nash
Issue: 7299 / Categories: Features , Human rights
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Human Rights Update

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LEGAL PROFESSIONAL PRIVILEGE >>
TRANSPORTING PRISONERS >>
TREATMENT IN DETENTION >>

Legal professional privilege: Search and seizure of electronic data

The complaint in Wieser and Bicos Beteiligungen GmbH v Austria (App no 74336/01) [2007] ECHR 815 related to the search and seizure of electronic data, which was obtained in breach of procedural safeguards protecting lawyers’ professional secrecy provided under national legislation. The applicants are a limited liability company and its owner and general manager, who is a lawyer.

Relying on the European Convention on Human Rights, Art 8 (the right to respect for private and family life) the applicants complained that the search and seizure of material from the general manager’s office amounted to an interference with the right to correspondence. During a criminal investigation into illegal trade in medicine, police officers conducted a search in the presence of one of the applicants and a representative of the Salzburg Bar Association.

- One group of officers searched for hard copies of files. When the applicant objected to the examination of a document, it was sealed

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NEWS
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NLJ this week: Tightening the screws on JCT terminations
The Supreme Court has delivered a decisive ruling on termination under the JCT Design & Build form. Writing in NLJ this week, Andrew Singer KC and Jonathan Ward, of Kings Chambers, analyse Providence Building Services v Hexagon Housing Association [2026] UKSC 1, which restores the first-instance decision and curbs contractors’ termination rights for repeated late payment
NLJ this week: Old rules, fresh warnings in employment law
Secondments, disciplinary procedures and appeal chaos all feature in a quartet of recent rulings. Writing in NLJ this week, Ian Smith, barrister and emeritus professor of employment law at UEA, examines how established principles are being tested in modern disputes
NLJ this week: The rise of the ‘ChatGPT client’ rattles the profession
The AI revolution is no longer a distant murmur—it’s at the client’s desk. Writing in NLJ this week, Peter Ambrose, CEO of The Partnership and Legalito, warns that the ‘AI chickens’ have ‘come home to roost’, transforming not just legal practice but the lawyer–client relationship itself
NLJ this week: Surrogacy children caught in succession gap
A High Court ruling involving the Longleat estate has exposed the fault line between modern family building and historic trust drafting. Writing in NLJ this week, Charlotte Coyle, director and family law expert at Freeths, examines Cator v Thynn [2026] EWHC 209 (Ch), where trustees sought approval to modernise trusts that retain pre-1970 definitions of ‘child’, ‘grandchild’ and ‘issue’
NLJ this week: Online safety law at a crossroads
Fresh proposals to criminalise ‘nudification’ apps, prioritise cyberflashing and non-consensual intimate images, and even ban under-16s from social media have reignited debate over whether the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA 2023) is fit for purpose. Writing in NLJ this week, Alexander Brown, head of technology, media and telecommunications, and Alexandra Webster, managing associate, Simmons & Simmons, caution against reactive law-making that could undermine the Act’s ‘risk-based and outcomes-focused’ design
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