Q&As

Is a party in civil proceedings required to disclose documents made available to it in related criminal proceedings? Does it make any difference that the documents in question are equally available to all parties to the civil proceedings?

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Produced in partnership with David Sawtell of 39 Essex Chambers
Published on: 20 January 2017
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At the outset, it is important to distinguish between three separate, if related concepts: disclosure; inspection; and reliance on a document.

Disclosure, inspection and reliance

A party’s disclosure obligation is to search for, and disclose, documents currently or formerly in a party's control. Disclosure is defined by CPR 31.2 as stating that the document exists or has existed.

There is a difference between not disclosing a document (in which case the other side may never know it has existed) and not allowing inspection of a document. CPR 31.3 confirms that a party to whom a document has been disclosed has a right to inspect that document except where a number of exceptions apply.

Even if a party has a document in its possession which it has disclosed and allowed inspection of, it might still require permission to rely on it

David Sawtell
David Sawtell

39 Essex Chambers

David is a barrister specialising in property, commercial and chancery fields. He was called to the Bar in 2005. He is regularly instructed in complicated property, company and commercial litigation, as well as cases involving professional liability. He has particular expertise in cases involving a cross over between different areas of law or where there are allegations of dishonesty or fraud. He appears regularly in the Chancery Division and has been reported in the Court of Appeal. He is regularly published across a number of leading practitioner’s periodicals, including the Commercial Litigation Journal and the Procurement and Outsourcing Journal. He speaks regularly at seminars and conferences on commercial and civil litigation topics. He was the author of the two commercial litigation units for the Level 4 higher apprenticeships in legal services. He is a tenant at Lamb Chambers.

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United Kingdom
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Key definition:
Rules definition
What does Rules mean?

The detailed provisions of a pension scheme.

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