ASIC has released Document production guidelines for people who are required to produce documents and any other record of information, including electronic and hard copy books, to ASIC in connection with its investigations or surveillance activities.

A compulsory notice to produce is an important investigative tool for ASIC.

ASIC has powers to compel the production of electronic books, including the metadata associated with the books, and original hard copy books within a specific time period.

It can also request:

• Emails and chats;
• Recordings of telephone conversations;
• Text messages;
• Document or content management systems;
• Audio and video files;
• Encrypted files;
• Databases.

The guidelines explains:

• the preferred methods for producing books to ASIC in electronic and hard copy form;
• the benefits of producing books in accordance with the guidelines;
• the consequences of not following the guidelines, and
• how ASIC requests books to be produced when using a litigation support system.

ASIC’s position on legal professional privilege is set out in Information
Sheet 165 Claims of legal professional privilege (INFO 165).

If you found this article helpful, then subscribe to our news emails to keep up to date and look at our video courses for in-depth training. Use the search box at the top right of this page or the categories list on the right hand side of this page to check for other articles on the same or related matters.