Day 262 - 13 Jun 96 - Page 46


     
     1        not need the witness today?
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No.  Certainly, Mr. Pocklington, you are
     4        released.  I assume Mrs. Brinley-Codd will get in touch
     5        with you about your return to court.
     6
     7   MR. RAMPTON:  I will assume he should come back tomorrow at
     8        10.30.
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  Thank you.
    11
    12   MR. RAMPTON:  Can I start with the holding.
    13
    14             "Held, allowing the appeal, that legal
    15             professional privilege existed to protect the
    16             public interest in ensuring that litigants or
    17             potential litigants could seek and obtain
    18             confidential advice in respect of actual or
    19             contemplated litigation and that litigation
    20             could be prepared and conducted without
    21             revealing the effect of that advice; that such
    22             privilege therefore attached to communications
    23             between a client and his legal adviser..."
    24
    25        My Lord, that is obvious and, I do not believe,
    26        controversial; and this is the important part:
    27
    28             "...or between a party to litigation or his
    29             legal adviser..."
    30
    31        And, therefore, one can put those words "or his legal
    32        adviser" in parentheses.
    33
    34             "...and third parties for the purpose of the
    35             litigation, and to documents brought into
    36             existence predominantly for the purpose of
    37             actual or contemplated litigation; that the
    38             rights which legal professional privilege
    39             existed to protect would not be infringed if a
    40             party were obliged to produce documents which
    41             had been in existence before litigation was
    42             contemplated...."
    43
    44        My Lord, I can stop there.
    45
    46   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  So, if notes or reports are brought into
    47        existence for the purpose of obtaining legal advice.
    48
    49   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes; or for the purpose of finding out -- as one
    50        will see in a moment -- what evidence one has to support a 
    51        possible legal action, then those notes or reports are 
    52        privileged. 
    53
    54        My Lord, I say that because it is clear from this case and
    55        from the subsequent case of the French pharmaceutical
    56        company, that this will apply even if the documents are
    57        never submitted to the solicitors, provided always that
    58        their purpose is the conduct of contemplated litigation.
    59
    60        Can I start a short reading from the judgment of

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