left-caret

Client Alert

Privilege: A Review of Recent Decisions of the English Courts

October 13, 2008

Donna E. Goldsworthy, Jing Li and Miranda X. Thomas

The English Court of Appeal has ended a debate surrounding the English Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) and legal professional privilege by confirming that the mention of a document in the disclosure process is not necessarily an automatic waiver of privilege. However, care should be taken when references to privileged documents are made.

In Expandable Limited & Another v Rubin [2008] EWCA Civ 59 (the Expandable Limited case), the Court of Appeal had to consider whether a covering letter from a solicitor had been mentioned in the respondents witness statement for the purposes of CPR 31.14 and, if so, whether legal professional privilege for the letter was automatically and absolutely lost.

Click here for a PDF of the full text