The recent Court of Appeal decision in WH Holding Ltd v E20 Stadium LLP [2018] EWCA Civ 2652 (outlined here) 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 (or here for the Practical Law Dispute Resolution blog homepage).
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