Litigation Notes

Privilege: a reminder of the dangers of cherry picking

Launch of Asia Pacific Guide to Privilege 2019, including England and Wales chapter

Our Asia Pacific Guide to Privilege has recently been launched, including a new chapter on England and Wales and a question added to each of the other …

Article published - Anomalies in the English law of privilege: a triumph of form over substance

Legal professional privilege is recognised as a fundamental human right, which serves an important public interest in allowing parties to take legal …

Disclosure Pilot: High Court clarifies transitional operation and considers privilege claims

The High Court has confirmed that the Disclosure Pilot operating in the Business and Property Courts since 1 January 2019 applies to all proceedings …

High Court finds parties agreed to vary application of "without prejudice" rule in subsequent "without prejudice save as to costs" correspondence

The High Court has held that correspondence marked "without prejudice save as to costs" and which described the conduct of prior "without prejudice" …

High Court considers application of much-criticised exception to without prejudice rule

The High Court has held that the content of "without prejudice" ("WP") communications between the parties to the proceedings was inadmissible, though the …

High Court restrains claimants from using defendant's privileged material obtained from third parties in unknown circumstances

A recent High Court decision demonstrates that, whilst confidentiality is a prerequisite to a claim for privilege, information will not cease to be …

High Court upholds claim to privilege in respect of underlying instructions to law firm relating to escrow monies

The High Court has rejected an application for disclosure of documents containing the underlying instructions to a law firm acting for a party funding a …

Court of Appeal finds litigation privilege is restricted to the purpose of obtaining advice or information, not the conduct of litigation more broadly

The Court of Appeal has held that emails between a company's Board members which had been prepared to discuss a commercial proposal for the settlement of …

Documents of dissolved company remained privileged unless no prospect of company being restored to the register

A High Court Master has found that the court must maintain privilege in the documents of a dissolved company unless and until there is no prospect of the …

Litigation privilege: High Court decision shows continued need to beware of dual purpose

The High Court has found that correspondence with experts was not subject to litigation privilege as it was prepared for two purposes, only one of which …

Information gathering by in-house lawyer in order to obtain external advice may not be protected by legal advice privilege

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 …