Demise of the Solicitor's Lien
On the solicitors' lien, in the era of e-filing.
By our Rules, all court documents must be electronically-filed.
The online copies then become the prime reference: see ‘Discrepancy’ under O. 63A, r. 15 (1) of the Rules of Court 2012:
Where a specified document was filed using the electronic filing service, and there is any inconsistency between-
(a) the information entered into the Court’s computer system; and
(b) the information contained in the document,
the information in the Court’s computer system shall prevail.
Online copies may be retrieved by all with ease; thus a litigant may still obtain his cause papers, notwithstanding the objections of a previous solicitor on record.
And so I wonder whether a solicitor’s lien can even be effectively exercised these days.