Check Your Privilege: Meaningful Narrative And An Irish Solicitor's Confirmatory Affidavit

In preparing for a trial, parties are required to seek out and disclose on affidavit certain categories of documents to one another. In that process, known as "discovery", parties are required to list - but are permitted to refuse to provide copies of - certain classes of documents. The relevant classes are based on long-established legal principles that justify a refusal, and each class is termed a "privilege".

In a significant judgment¹, the Irish High Court has confirmed that, when listing on affidavit the documents over which a party maintains a privilege, the party is required to provide a meaningful description of the documents.

Further, the High Court required the solicitor overseeing the discovery process to swear an affidavit confirming that he had reviewed the documents and that, in his opinion, the legal advice and litigation privilege claims were well-founded.