A recent Court of Appeal decision has given rise to concern regarding the extent to which litigation privilege is available to protect an organisation's internal deliberations on its settlement options in a dispute.
In WH Holding Ltd v E20 Stadium LLP [2018] EWCA Civ 2652 (outlined here) the Court found that litigation privilege applies only to documents created for the dominant purpose of obtaining advice or information/evidence in relation to litigation, and not the conduct of litigation more broadly. As a result, the privilege did not apply to emails between a company’s Board members which had been prepared to discuss a commercial proposal for the settlement of a dispute.
The decision causes real practical difficulties for commercial parties, exposing an awkward gap in the protection afforded to documents prepared for the purpose of settling a dispute.
Maura McIntosh has published a post on Practical Law’s Dispute Resolution blog which considers the decision and its implications. Click here to read the post.