Privilege: Three Rivers Runs Through It

In Three Rivers the Court of Appeal has ruled that the scope of legal advice privilege for documents created in the absence of actual or threatened litigation is very limited. In house lawyers need to be very alert to this, particularly when faced with regulatory investigations

The case was part of the complex BCCI litigation and the brief facts are as follows:

In 1988 The Bank of England, ("the Bank ") granted a licence to BCCI to carry on business as a deposit taking institution. On BCCI's collapse in 1991,the government set up the Bingham Inquiry to investigate the Bank's supervision of BCCI and to consider whether the actions taken by the UK authorities were appropriate and timely.