Legal Professional Privilege and Three Rivers (No 6): Part 1 Legal Advice Privilege

Charles Prest Barrister No 6 Chambers. In the mid-1990s developments in the field of legal professional privilege were led by R v Derby Magistrates' Court ex parte B [1996] 1 FLR 513 and Re L (Police Investigation: Privilege) [1996] 1 FLR 731. In R v Derby Magistrates' Court a unanimous House of Lords held that the appellant could not be made to disclose in criminal committal proceedings an earlier and different account he had given to his solicitors about the death of a girl unless he chose to waive his privilege (ie legal advice privilege) while in Re L a 3:2 majority in the House of Lords held that because proceedings under Part IV of the Children Act 1989 are non-adversarial an expert's report obtained in such proceedings did not attract privilege (ie litigation privilege) and an order could therefore lawfully be made for the disclosure of that report to the police.

However the leading decisions in this field are now those arising from the litigation surrounding the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International including...

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