Build Privilege Log

Build Privilege Log

Organise the facts a practitioner needs to decide privilege, document by document, without deciding it. The log records what each document shows about who made it, for whom and why, and lists the questions a claim would have to answer. Every claim remains a practitioner decision, the source documents stay unchanged and the log is delivered as a Word .docx file.

Workflow

1. Define the log set and the instructed bases.
   • Record the matter label, the supplied set (or the document index it was drawn from), the production or disclosure obligation it answers, and the practitioner's instructions on the bases to consider.
   • Record the rules the practitioner names — the applicable Evidence Act provisions, court rules or common-law principles — as the framework for the log. Do not select a framework; if none is supplied, log under descriptive bases only and flag the gap.
   • State that the log covers only the supplied and readable documents.
2. Build the source review table.
   • Use the runtime's native review-table or structured document-review feature when available. Do not replace an available native table with prose.
   • Treat each document or coherent family (an email chain, an advice and its enclosures) as a source row. Use these columns: source ID; document date; document type; author and role; recipients and roles; lawyer involvement as shown on the face; stated purpose or subject as shown on the face; confidentiality markings; third-party circulation; candidate basis; supporting facts and pinpoints; facts against the claim; waiver flags; and reviewer status.
   • If no native table exists, use the same schema as an internal structured extraction and state in the final document that cell verification and native source navigation were unavailable.
3. Record the facts bearing on each candidate claim.
   • Take roles, purpose and markings from the document's own face and cite the pinpoint. Label a lawyer's involvement as on the face, stated by practitioner or cannot be determined; never infer that a copied lawyer was giving advice.
   • Record circulation to anyone outside the client and its legal advisers, forwarding, quotation in other documents, and any reference to the document in a non-privileged document as waiver flags with pinpoints. Flag; never decide waiver.
   • Where a family mixes privileged-looking and other content, record the part-privilege candidate and the pages or passages involved for redaction review.
   • Record a basis as candidate only. Use cannot be determined where the face of the document does not show purpose or roles.
4. Create the Word log.
   • Create a new .docx file. If the user supplies an approved privilege-log template or a court-prescribed form, use a working copy and preserve its styles; otherwise use a clean, restrained professional layout suitable for legal review.
   • Include: title and document status; log scope, instructed framework and supplied-source limitation; the privilege log table; a waiver-flag register; part-privilege and redaction candidates; unreadable items; review record; and limitations.
   • Use a landscape section when needed. Repeat table headings across pages, allow rows to expand and do not shrink text to force the table onto fewer pages.
   • Mark the document DRAFT - HUMAN REVIEW REQUIRED and label every basis column candidate. Use reviewer names, firm branding or matter identifiers only when supplied or approved.
5. Check traceability and gaps.
   • Confirm that every row points to a supplied source and usable pinpoint or an express pinpoint limitation, and that every candidate basis has at least one supporting fact recorded.
   • List unreadable files, missing enclosures, chains with missing earlier messages and documents whose author or purpose cannot be determined.
   • Confirm that the output is a valid .docx, opens successfully and contains the expected sections and rows. Use the runtime's document preview when available and inspect every page. If visual inspection is unavailable, state that limitation in the document and result status.

Result contract

Lead with READY FOR HUMAN REVIEW, READY WITH QUALIFICATIONS, NOT READY or OUTSIDE SCOPE.

Log scope: <matter label; supplied set; obligation answered; instructed framework>
Source review table: <native table reference or structured fallback>
DOCX privilege log: <filename; valid and opened; visual QA status>
Privilege log table: <source ID; date; type; author and role; recipients and
  roles; lawyer involvement; purpose on the face; markings; circulation;
  candidate basis; supporting facts and pinpoints; facts against; waiver
  flags>
Waiver-flag register: <flag ID; source IDs; circulation or reference; question
  for the practitioner>
Part-privilege candidates: <source ID; pages or passages; reason>
Unreadable or undetermined: <file; reason; practitioner action>
Review record: <unreviewed | corrected | verified, with human reviewer details
  only when supplied>
Limitations: <supplied-source boundary; framework gaps; face-of-document limits>

Use READY FOR HUMAN REVIEW when every row is traceable, every basis is labelled candidate and a valid .docx passed the available document checks. Use READY WITH QUALIFICATIONS when the .docx remains useful despite unreadable material, undetermined roles or purposes, an unsupplied framework or unavailable visual inspection. Use NOT READY when source identity or traceability is too weak to support a reviewable log, or the runtime cannot create a valid .docx. Use OUTSIDE SCOPE when the request requires a decision that privilege exists or is lost, an assertion to a court or regulator, or a non-Australian privilege rule the practitioner has not supplied.

Fail closed

Never decide that a document is privileged, not privileged or that privilege is waived; never state a conclusion on dominant purpose, and never express a view on credibility, weight, admissibility or merits. Never invent an author, recipient, role, purpose, marking, date or pinpoint, and never infer legal advice from a lawyer's name alone. Never omit a supplied document from the log or merge distinct documents into one row without recording the family. Do not claim the log is complete beyond the supplied and readable set. Do not alter, send, file, produce, publish or disclose source documents or the log without separate human authorisation. Do not substitute Markdown, PDF, a spreadsheet or prose-only output for the required .docx log.