Common interest privilege allows communications or documents that are already privileged to be shared with others who have a common interest in their subject matter without losing privilege.
The practical significance of this concept is greatly reduced as a result of the principle of limited waiver under English law, which allows privileged material to be shared confidentially with selected third parties without losing privilege as against the rest of the world - whether or not there is a common interest. Even so, the concept of common interest privilege is often referred to, sometimes in circumstances where it is inapt or unnecessary, and so causes a great deal of confusion.
Maura McIntosh has published a post on Practical Law’s Dispute Resolution blog entitled “Common interest privilege: common misconceptions” which aims to dispel some common myths about common interest privilege. Click here to download a copy of the post (or here for the Practical Law Dispute Resolution blog homepage).
