In a recent decision, the High Court has held that an in-house lawyer's communications with an employee of the business, who was accepted to be her in-house "client" for some purposes, were not protected by legal advice privilege where those… Read more

The Court of Appeal's recent decision in The Director of the Serious Fraud Office v Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation Ltd [2018] EWCA Civ 2006 (ENRC) has, helpfully, departed from the High Court's overly strict approach to questions of litigation privilege. However, it has left… Read more

The High Court has held that an audit client could not withhold documents on grounds of privilege when responding to a notice requiring the production of documents in connection with an investigation into the auditor's conduct: The Financial Reporting Council… Read more

Julian Copeman and Maura McIntosh have published an article in PLC Magazine looking at the new disclosure rules that are due to be piloted in the Business and Property Courts for two years starting in January 2019. The article outlines the key provisions… Read more

The Court of Appeal has today handed down its eagerly awaited decision in the ENRC appeal: The Director of the Serious Fraud Office v Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation Ltd [2018] EWCA Civ 2006. At first instance, the High Court took a restrictive… Read more

In a recent decision, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) found that an email containing advice from an in-house lawyer was not protected by privilege due to the "iniquity principle", as there was a strong prima facie case that it advised on… Read more

New rules to govern disclosure of documents in litigation before the English courts were unveiled yesterday, having been approved by the Civil Procedure Rule Committee on 13 July. The rules will be subject to a two-year pilot in the Business… Read more

In two recent decisions, the High Court has considered the extent to which a party can provide privileged documents to a third party for a particular purpose without resulting in a wider waiver of privilege. The decisions illustrate the importance,… Read more

The Administrative Court has held that a defendant did not lose privilege in unredacted passages of documents that had been provided for inspection, as it was obvious that the passages had been inadvertently disclosed, and that there was no question… Read more

The Commercial Court has held that a non-party who controlled litigation was not entitled to assert litigation privilege against the party it was controlling and who was the party to the proceedings: Minera Las Bambas SA v Glencore Queensland Ltd… Read more

In a recent decision, the Court of Appeal held that a solicitor could not object on grounds of privilege to giving evidence, where the questions related to factual information received by the solicitor from third parties in the course of… Read more

The High Court has found that documents prepared by the defendant in the course of an investigation into allegations by HMRC were protected by litigation privilege: Bilta (UK) Ltd (in liquidation) & ors v Royal Bank of Scotland Plc & anor [2017]… Read more

In a recent decision, the High Court has considered the question of when a document will be privileged on the basis that it "evidences" a privileged communication and has taken a more liberal approach than previous case law suggested: In the matter… Read more

Given the variety of civil law and common law systems across Asia, and the fact that corporate investigations in the region almost always involve multi-jurisdictional elements, protecting privilege is a complex topic. With the differing approaches to privilege adopted both… Read more

A disclosure working group set up last year, chaired by Lady Justice Gloster, yesterday published its proposals for reforms to the rules governing disclosure of documents in English litigation. The proposals are subject to consultation with a view to setting… Read more

The First Tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) has held that a party waived privilege in certain communications with its lawyers by relying on the absence of relevant advice from those lawyers in order to support its application to lodge an appeal out… Read more

In a recent decision, the Court of Appeal has upheld an injunction against a defendant publisher to prevent it using the claimant's privileged information that had been provided to the publisher in breach of confidence: Lachaux v Independent Print Limited [2017]… Read more

The High Court has concluded that, where a claimant waived privilege in certain emails to rebut a suggestion of recent fabrication, only a small number of other privileged documents had to be disclosed as a result of the cherry-picking rule:… Read more

The Court of Appeal has added what it has termed "a modest gloss" to the principles on when the court will restrain use of a privileged document disclosed in error, on the basis that there has been an obvious mistake.… Read more

The High Court has found that a company's Group Finance Director could not assert privilege against the company in respect of documents he had created for the purpose of obtaining legal advice in respect of his divorce proceedings, which the… Read more

In a recent decision, the High Court has found that documents relating to negotiations in respect of the costs that were recoverable in litigation had to be disclosed to a third party (the claimant in the present action) who had… Read more

In a recent decision, the Singapore Court of Appeal concluded that evidence which had been made available on WikiLeaks as a result of the respondent's computer systems being hacked had not lost its confidential and legally privileged status: Wee Shuo Woon… Read more

A High Court decision earlier this week has applied a strict approach to litigation privilege in the context of criminal proceedings, finding that litigation was not in reasonable contemplation (so the first limb of the test for litigation privilege was not… Read more

In a recent decision, the High Court declined to disapply legal professional privilege over documents alleged to reveal a breach of fundamental human rights, in the form of the claimant's right to privacy: Holyoake v Candy and anor [2017] EWHC… Read more

A costs judge has held that information about a party's costs provided for the purposes of a mediation could be used as evidence when considering the cost consequences of a subsequent settlement: Savings Advice Limited v EDF Energy Customers Ltd… Read more

In a widely publicised decision last December arising out of the RBS Rights Issue Litigation (reported here), the High Court found that interviews conducted by a bank's solicitors with its employees were not covered by legal advice privilege as the… Read more

In a decision handed down today, the High Court has applied the much-criticised Court of Appeal decision in Three Rivers No 5 to find that interviews conducted by a bank's solicitors with its employees were not covered by legal advice… Read more

In a recent judgment, the Court of Appeal has held that trustees in bankruptcy could not waive legal professional privilege of a bankrupt, even though (i) the trustees in bankruptcy were entitled to take possession of the documents in which… Read more

In two recent cases, the courts have rejected attempts to introduce evidence of without prejudice (WP) communications. The decisions emphasise the important public policy role of the WP rule in encouraging settlement by ensuring parties can negotiate freely, without fear… Read more

The Court of Appeal has recently considered the rarely invoked "unambiguous impropriety" exception to without prejudice ("WP") privilege: Ferster v Ferster [2016] EWCA Civ 717. Upholding the decision of Rose J at first instance, the Court of Appeal found that… Read more