Cases

Napier & Another v Pressdram Ltd

Held

Dismissing the appeal,

1. No reasonable person in the position of the complainant, having invoked the Law Society's scheme for investigating complaints and learning of findings (partly) in his favour, ought to have regarded these matters as confidential. The information was not private or confidential—confidentiality was only claimed in the procedural nature of the investigation itself. There was no breach passing the information to Private Eye.

2. Although many disciplinary inquiries are carried out in private, the result is not necessarily confidential to the parties. Nor does disclosure of an outcome denigrate the procedure used—but provides public confidence in regulation. In 2007 the SRA announced findings of misconduct would be publicised.

3. Parliament had not introduced any restrictions on disclosures that could be made by parties in complaints procedures in the Legal Services Act 2007.

The respondent's public interest ground were not considered.

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