Legal professional privilege may be a mainstay of most common law legal systems and arguably the basis on which many high-profile cases are lost or won, but rarely does it enjoy the limelight itself, writes Caroline Hill
Contrary to most European civil law systems, clients of solicitors and barristers in England and Wales are protected by a fundamental right to withhold confidential communications with their lawyer from the court, as an exception to onerous obligations of disclosure not seen in civil law jurisdictions.
