Letter · Energy, Resources & Mining
Letter of advice: duty to notify a pollution incident and the client's exposure (NSW)
Privileged advice letter to a resources or energy client after a spill or discharge: whether Part 5.7 of the POEO Act applies, who must notify and when, what information must follow, penalty and executive exposure, and recommended next steps.
- Kind
- Letter. A letter or email you adapt and send.
- Where it applies
- New South Wales
- AI use
- Red Keep AI out of the decisive steps. A lawyer does the work.
- Law stated as at
- 18 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 18 October 2026 against the 3 authorities it cites, for New South Wales.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use when a client asks, during or shortly after an incident, whether it had to notify, whether its notification was adequate, and what it should do now. If notification has not yet been made and the duty may apply, advise the client to notify immediately before anything else.
How AI may be used
The lawyer writes the advice; AI may build the incident timeline and the table of notifications from the client's records and check that the letter's facts match them.
AI may
- Build a timeline of the incident, awareness and each notification from site logs, emails and call records
- Compare the information already given to the authorities with the s 150 list and show gaps
- Check names, times and quantities in the lawyer's draft against the source records
AI must not
- Must not write the advice on whether material harm was caused or threatened, or whether the client complied
- Must not assess penalty, executive liability or prospects of prosecution
- Must not be given privileged investigation material in a tool outside the firm's approved environment
The lawyer checks
- The facts relied on are identified, with their source, and the advice says how it changes if they differ
- If notification is outstanding, the letter leads with the instruction to notify each relevant authority immediately
- Privilege over the investigation is protected: the purpose, the distribution list and who commissions any expert report
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
The full text is for signed-in accounts. It is free. When you sign in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
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