Council drafts policy on legal advice

A draft policy on the release of Gosford Council's legal advice could mean the basis for claims that the Correa Bay water quality report contained defamatory material may never be known.

The draft is currently on exhibition for public comment, before being adopted by Gosford Council

The draft was prepared after consideration of principles suggested by the Ombudsman.

General manager Mr Peter Wilson reported to the council that "in substance" the principle was that "where it is in the public interest, legal advice should be publicly available".

Mr Wilson said: "It is not in the public interest that the legal advice relating to current litigation be released.

"However, when a matter is finalised there may be no reason to keep that information private."

The general manager had delegation to release details of legal advice.

The draft policy gave the general manager discretion in releasing legal advice, whether or not the matter is subject to litigation or potential litigation.

The policy requires him to "have regard to" the Ombudsman’s Principles on Obtaining and Distributing Legal Advice before releasing legal advice.

The Ombudsman's guidelines give a number of circumstances considered "unlikely to be contrary to the public interest" to release legal advice.

These include where "it contains information likely to contribute to positive and informed debate about issues of serious interest", "it will significantly contribute to the public accountability of the council" or where "it will assist or allow inquiry into possible deficiencies in council's conduct".

Council agenda, May 1