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
