Privilege Holds The Line, For Now.

The High Court's decision in Carter-Ruck v SRAhas sparked considerable interest across the legal profession, confirming that the SRA cannot use its statutory information-gathering powers to compel law firms to disclose documents protected by a client's legal professional privilege (LPP) unless the client has waived that privilege. The ruling is a setback for the regulator, which argues that there is a real need for it to have the ability to consider privileged material in investigating, and potentially prosecuting, cases of alleged misconduct. The SRA has already announced its intention to appeal the High Court decision. 

During the High Court case, the SRA argued that it should be able to obtain documents protected by a client's LPP for two reasons.