If you are subject to a disclosure order during litigation, you have a general duty to disclose relevant documents to the other side. In most cases, the other side can inspect these documents. However, in certain circumstances, you can withhold some documents that would otherwise be inspectable under various grounds of privilege. Common interest privilege describes documents you might have provided to a third party (other than your legal advisers) during litigation. This article will explain common interest privilege and provide examples of documents that might attract this kind of privilege. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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It is worth pointing out that the law distinguishes between disclosure and inspection. Disclosure is when one party searches for all relevant documents and then lists these in a document. The party must then serve this document to the other party in the dispute<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, inspection is where the other party reviews<\/em> the documents disclosed. Not all disclosed documents are necessarily inspectable. For instance, you may have found several relevant documents protected by one of the various forms of privilege. As a result, disclosure rules require you to list such documents but may entitle you to withhold them so that the other party cannot inspect them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Just because a document attracts privilege does not mean you can avoid disclosing it. However, privilege can prevent the other side from actually reviewing its content.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Common interest privilege protects certain documents or forms of communication from inspection. This is on the basis that you provided the documents to third parties during litigation under certain circumstances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The following criteria can help you decide what documents or communication fall under common interest privilege:<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the key features of common interest privilege is that it does not necessarily involve legal advice or communications with your legal advisers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n Continue reading this article below the form\n <\/i>\n<\/a>\nWhat is Common Interest Privilege? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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