header-logo header-logo

Illuminating iniquity: what’s confidential?

31 January 2019 / Shane Crawford
Issue: 7826 / Categories: Features , Employment , Discrimination
printer mail-detail

Is evidence which discloses iniquity still considered legally privileged? Shane Crawford looks at the facts

  • Examines a recent Employment Appeal Tribunal case in which the limits of legal privilege were considered in circumstances where the contents of the document in question disclosed possible iniquity.

In a recent Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) decision, X v Y Ltd UKEAT/0261/17/JOJ, the limits of legal privilege were considered in circumstances where the contents of the document disclosed potential iniquity.

Evidence to which legal privilege attaches may still be used as evidence in the employment tribunal if the advice provided within facilitates an iniquity.

‘Advice sought or given for the purpose of iniquity is not privileged’: Barclays Bank plc v Eustice [1995] 4 All ER 511, [1995] 1 WLR 1238.

Sources of evidence may be pertinent—if not essential—to a claim, but their admissibility is thwarted by their classification as being privileged. Such a situation arose in X v Y Ltd , where an email between lawyers for the respondent was judged to be contemplating the

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

Blake Morgan managing partner appointed chair of CBI South-East Council

Birketts—Phillippa O’Neill

Birketts—Phillippa O’Neill

Commercial dispute resolution team welcomes partner in Cambridge

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Firm strengthens international funds capability with senior hire

NEWS
The proposed £11bn redress scheme following the Supreme Court’s motor finance rulings is analysed in this week’s NLJ by Fred Philpott of Gough Square Chambers
In this week's issue, Stephen Gold, NLJ columnist and former district judge, surveys another eclectic fortnight in procedure. With humour and humanity, he reminds readers that beneath the procedural dust, the law still changes lives
Generative AI isn’t the villain of the courtroom—it’s the misunderstanding of it that’s dangerous, argues Dr Alan Ma of Birmingham City University and the Birmingham Law Society in this week's NLJ
James Naylor of Naylor Solicitors dissects the government’s plan to outlaw upward-only rent review (UORR) clauses in new commercial leases under Schedule 31 of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, in this week's NLJ. The reform, he explains, marks a seismic shift in landlord-tenant power dynamics: rents will no longer rise inexorably, and tenants gain statutory caps and procedural rights
Writing in NLJ this week, James Harrison and Jenna Coad of Penningtons Manches Cooper chart the Privy Council’s demolition of the long-standing ‘shareholder rule’ in Jardine Strategic v Oasis Investments
back-to-top-scroll