Playing for Keeps? Tobacco Litigation, Document Retention, Corporate Culture and Legal Ethics

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Harvey, Matt ORCID: 0000-0003-2050-5228 and LeMire, Suzanne (2008) Playing for Keeps? Tobacco Litigation, Document Retention, Corporate Culture and Legal Ethics. Monash University Law Review, 34. pp. 163-189. ISSN 0311-3140

Abstract

The Rolah McCabe case, in which a woman dying of lung cancer unsuccessfully sued a tobacco company, has led to reforms in criminal law, the law of evidence, and legal conduct rules in Australia. McCabe exposed British American Tobacco’s policies of ‘document retention’ which led to the destruction of damaging evidence before litigation commenced. This article considers how the legislative responses to McCabe could affect the process of litigation against large corporations and the conduct of those corporations. Given the integral role of lawyers, both in-house and external, in the ‘document retention’ policies and the process of discovery, it will also examine the implications for legal ethics. Finally, it will canvas some other strategies that might prevent a repeat of the McCabe disaster.

Item type Article
URI https://vuir.vu.edu.au/id/eprint/3698
Official URL https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journa...
Subjects Historical > FOR Classification > 1801 Law
Historical > FOR Classification > 2201 Applied Ethics
Historical > Faculty/School/Research Centre/Department > School of Law
Historical > SEO Classification > 9404 Justice and the Law
Keywords ResPubID14953, Rolah McCabe case, legislative responses, tobacco litigation, document retention, corporate culture, legal ethics
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