Cases

Napier & Another v Pressdram Ltd

Comment

The Court adopted the traditional approach to deciding whether someone to whom information is imparted comes under an obligation of confidentiality. No significance was attached to the routine use of 'private and confidential' in correspondence, and the expression of a preference that no information be disclosed was viewed as a 'request rather than a requirement' by the Court of Appeal. The time for imposing confidentiality on an investigation will be at the outset. Since it is now open to the complainant (or anyone else) to publish information generated by disciplinary investigations and the outcome, the procedures laid down by the SRA and statute for deciding what should be published and when are of only limited effect: the Court of Appeal held that those procedures were there because publication by the SRA or the Ombudsman would attract privilege in the law of defamation, and so needed to be controlled.

Areas of work

Injunctive Relief
Media Law
Privacy and Confidence
Publishing

Also