International Law

One person's trash is another person's treasure

By Rick Rein

In the United States, trash is deemed abandoned property and can be collected and used by others. Likewise, in other countries, the same proposition may hold true.

Earlier this year in Canada, the Supreme Court in R v. Patrick, found that an individual who had placed the trash for collection at the rear of his property had abandoned his privacy interests inthe contents of the bags at the curb. Even though the trash bags were within the property of the individual discarding them, the court found that a "reasonable person would not expect that garbage is secure and private and would conclude that garbage is not obviously private in nature."

For those trying to track down assets for recovery, trash collection, if permitted by that country's laws, is an excellent discovery tool.  On a daily basis, persons throw out credit card bills, bank statements and pay slips. The amount of personal and business information one can develop from discarded information cannot be overlooked.

Full post as published by International Asset Recovery Law Blog on September 10, 2009 (boomark / email).