of power,'' Supreme Court was told yesterday.

And if Mr. Hall was successful in quashing the search warrants that Police used, he would seek damages, lawyer Mr. Robin McMillan suggested.

The lawyer spent the entire day arguing that the proper procedure was not followed in obtaining the search warrants. He was to resume his submissions this morning.

Police raided the Front Street office of Hall and Associates on October 22.

They believed the former Progressive Labour Party MP was involved in drug trafficking, the court was told.

The two warrants they obtained from Magistrate the Wor. John Judge were in connection with an investigation under the Drug Trafficking Suppression Act.

In a hearing yesterday before Chief Justice the Hon. Austin Ward, Mr. McMillan argued the Police raid amounted to trespassing.

"The retention of documents came about by an exercise that was illegal from start to finish,'' he said.

The major problem was that Mr. Judge did not consider whether any of the documents sought were privileged as communication between a lawyer and a client, Mr. McMillan said.

"It is a fundamental principle of law that legally privileged material may not be seized.'' If Mr. Judge had considered the issue of legal privilege and satisfied himself that items sought were not subject to it, he would have cited a different section of the act in granting the warrants, he said.

Mr. Hall was unrepresented when the warrants were issued, and therefore was unable to raise the issue of privilege, he said.

He later succeeded in having what was seized sealed until he challenged the warrants in Supreme Court.

Citing an English case in which Southwest Meat was awarded 25,000 ($37,500) in damages after a court ruled a search of the premises was illegal, Mr. McMillan said: "If an award of 25,000 is considered suitable for a meat factory, it might well be that in a case of two warrants served on a law office in Bermuda, a rather larger amount might be on the cards.'' It was not just Mr. Hall's rights that were violated, he said. "Mr. Hall not only speaks for himself, but also speaks for those clients whose affairs have been rifled through.'' Mr. McMillan said items were seized that were not included in the warrants, and "an extensive search continued after items specified in the first warrant had been found and handed over.''