PDF version: Represented Adults and Solicitor-Client Privilege
Case considered: Wayne v Wayne, 2012 ABQB 763.
The Adult Guardianship and Trusteeship Act, SA 2008, c A-4.2 (AGTA), applies to persons over the age of 18 who are unable to make personal or financial decisions for themselves, a person the statute calls a “represented adult.” There has not been much judicial consideration of the statute which came into force on October 30, 2009; there appears to be fewer than a dozen cases interpreting only a relatively small number of the statute’s provisions. That is one reason why Wayne v Wayne is of interest. Another reason is that the issue in Wayne v Wayne is intrinsically interesting, at least to the legal profession, because it is about the ability of a trustee appointed to manage the financial affairs of a represented adult to gain access to information otherwise protected by solicitor-client privilege from the file of a represented adult to whom a lawyer gave legal advice.