Can we claim privilege?

Disclosure exercises inevitably raise complex questions about what is and is not privileged: and whenever the more nuanced and difficult questions arise, it is clear that the legal position as to what is, in fact, privileged is rarely as simple as it appeared when the relevant documents were created.

There have recently been a number of developments in the law in this respect. This article considers the case of R (Ford) v Financial Services Authority that provides useful clarification of joint privilege and looks at: 

• the background to joint privilege;
• the facts of the case and the background to the dispute; 
• the debate on the law and the conclusions reached; 
• practical implications of the decision; and 
• additional points relevant to Financial Services Authority (FSA) investigations and privilege more generally, which were also dealt with in the judgment.

Source: The In-House Lawyer