Lawyers for the tech giant took the unusual step of issuing a summons to demand 20 categories of documents, alleging the mining magnate’s lawyers had failed to hand papers relevant to the legal battle.
The documents include some of Dr Forest’s personal emails and communication about overseas litigation funding for the case he has launched against the social media platform in the US.
Meta also wants a copy of a draft letter sent by prosecutors to the Commonwealth Attorney General, which West Australia’s Magistrates Court heard was privileged.
Meta has previously pleaded not guilty in the same court to three counts of recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime to the value of $1,000 or more during the long-running legal stoush that started almost two years ago.
The company’s lawyer Paul Yovich SC said on Monday that Dr Forest’s legal team had been vague about whether it had executed its discovery obligations as he made his argument in support of the summons.
“Having said emphatically in correspondence in relation to certain categories of documents sought by the defence that there were no further documents to provide, following exchanges of submissions between the parties there are more,” he said.
“When the prosecutor says there are no further documents to disclose I cannot have complete confidence that is completely accurate.”
The documents Meta wants also include multiple emails between Dr Forest’s lawyers, emails to expert witnesses and reports about the use of third-party advertisements featuring his name.
Dr Forest’s lawyer Rachael Young said the summons was an abuse of process, unlawful and many of the documents that Meta sought weren’t relevant to the case as she urged the court to cancel Meta’s summons.
She said the prosecution team has already supplied 18 folders of documents and complied with its obligations under the well-established rules of the court system.
Ms Young also asked the court to reject Meta’s application to use documents from similar proceedings involving the company in US and Irish courts, saying they were also irrelevant and protected by legal privilege.
These documents also include Dr Forest’s communications with his lawyers about an expert witness.
“It’s a very unusual circumstance in which effectively because there are multiple actions around the world that documents that might be deployed,” Ms Young said as she argued against Meta’s application.
Prosecutors allege that Meta was criminally reckless in allowing bogus advertisements for a cryptocurrency investment scheme using his image to appear on its site.
Meta is accused of failing to take sufficient steps to take down the scam advertisements, which feature the billionaire and other prominent Australians.
Dr Forrest has previously said he made repeated requests to Facebook to take down the advertisements that he alleged appeared in 2019.
He launched civil proceedings against Facebook in California in September 2021.
The WA matter will return to court on November 20 when Magistrate Melita Medcalf is expected to deliver her judgement.