Kaplantzis v Whitehorse CC & Anor . Country/Territory Australia Type of court National - lower court Date Sep 10, 2010 Source UNEP, InforMEA Court name Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Seat of court Melbourne Judge Byard. Reference number [2010] VCAT 1502 Language English Subject Land & soil, Legal questions Keyword Land-use planning Access-to-information Abstract This case arose from an application for an interim enforcement order under s 120 of the Planning and Environment Act. The representatives of the applicant, seeking access to documents on the file of the responsible authority, were required to complete a document headed 'Planning information request for copy of planning permit and endorsed plans'. The representatives completed the form, setting out the documents they sought from the responsible authority's file. The responsible authority allowed the representatives to see the documents and to have copies of some of them, but not others. Copying was denied where the documents referred to persons other than the parties to the VCAT proceedings. The responsible authority indicated that it would only provide copies of those documents pursuant to a request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982. VCAT found that a Freedom of Information request would take an amount of time which 'would be excessive in the circumstances, unreasonable and obstructive of the parties obtaining justice before the Tribunal'. VCAT ordered the responsible authority to provide access to the documents on such of its files 'as are relevant to these proceedings' (including a previous proceeding in VCAT whereby the permit in question was granted). It also ordered that the parties to the enforcement order proceeding be able to obtain copies of any such documents. The order was made subject only to a claim of legal professional privilege, with such claim to be made in writing and to be presented to the party to whom access was denied, specifying and identifying the documents in relation to which privilege was claimed. Confidential communications between a client and the client's legal advisor are privileged (generally if the purpose of their communication is to request legal advice or for use in existing or anticipated litigation. Full text COU-156711.pdf