Privilege (4th Edition)

The fourth edition of this highly practical book examines privilege in all its aspects in terms which will appeal to the practitioner and academic alike. The author's explanation of the subject is both detailed and analytical, providing the reader with a definitive, comprehensive and expertly written account.

• Explains the law of legal advice and litigation privilege in all its aspects
• Goes through the core principles of legal professional privilege, including its rationale and the nature of the right
• Looks at what constitutes privilege
• Identifies situations where privilege occurs
• Examines the boundaries of privilege
• Covers the circumstances when privilege is deemed to be lost
• Considers in detail ‘advice privilege’ and ‘litigation privilege’, covering the essential elements of both, the distinction between the two and matters specific to each such as the client-lawyer relationship, confidential communications and third party communications for ‘advice privilege’, and legal proceedings, expert witnesses, witness statements, and criminal proceedings for ‘litigation proceedings’
• Assesses whether a documentary communication which was not made in privileged circumstances can subsequently to subject to legal professional privilege
• Deals with the consequences where the subject matter of a privileged communication is one in which two or more persons can establish a joint or common interest
• Addresses the general principles underlying the ‘crime-fraud exception’’, how it applies in both civil and criminal proceedings and the grounds on which it can be invoked
• Shows how a claim to privilege is made in civil litigation, when it can be challenged, the circumstances in which a court will exercise its right to inspect documents of which the claim to privilege is made and what happens when an order for production is made in respect of materials which are privileged in part only
• Takes into account the without prejudice privilege and how it differs from legal professional privilege
• Analyses key judgments which have established the principles of privilege