In recent years, the inviolability of legal professional privilege and, conversely, barriers to the smooth running of lawyer/client relationships have been recurring and important topics for legal practitioners.
Legal privilege has been recognised as “a cornerstone in the legal system” in a Lord Chancellor’s Department consultation paper and a “fundamental human right” by Lord Hoffmann in R v Special Commissioner and another ex parte Morgan Grenfell and Co Ltd. But despite this, the introduction of certain statutory provisions and the Court of Appeal’s decision in Three Rivers DC and others v The Governor and the Company of the Bank of England appeared to be eroding privilege.
