Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to LA FOIP, Chapter 4, Exemptions from the Right of Access. Updated 18 Oct 2023. 226 The local authority should make it clear who the solicitor is and who the client is. Solicitor means a lawyer who is duly admitted as a member and whose right to practice is not suspended.782 Lawyer means a member of the Law Society and includes a law student registered in the Society’s pre-call training program.783 Client means a person who: • Consults a lawyer and on whose behalf the lawyer renders or agrees to render legal services; or • Having consulted the lawyer, reasonably concludes that the lawyer has agreed to render legal services on his or her behalf; and includes a client of the law firm of which the lawyer is a partner or associate, whether or not the lawyer handles the client’s work.784 This provision ensures that a local authority, as the client, has the same protection for its legal documents as persons in the private sector. Whether a solicitor-client relationship exists is a fact driven and multifaceted analysis. Sometimes, it will be readily apparent that a retainer exists. Other times, a careful examination of the facts must be undertaken.785 It is not necessary that a person formally retain a lawyer by way of letter or other document before a solicitor-client relationship can be found. Nor is it necessary that an account be rendered by the lawyer or that an account be paid. There are certain indicia that may or may not determine that such a relationship exists. These include: • A contract or retainer. • A file opened by the lawyer. • Meetings between the lawyer and the party. • Correspondence between the lawyer and the party. • A bill rendered by the lawyer to the party. • A bill paid by the party. • Instructions given by the party to the lawyer. • The lawyer acting on the instructions given. • Statements made by the lawyer that the lawyer is acting for the party. 782 The Legal Profession Act, 1990, SS 1990-91, c L-10.1 at s. 87. 783 Law Society of Saskatchewan, Code of Professional Conduct at p. 13, Definitions. 784 Law Society of Saskatchewan, Code of Professional Conduct at p. 10, Definitions. 785 Trillium Motor World Ltd. v. General Motors of Canada Limited¸2015 ONSC 3824 (CanLII) at [417].
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