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10 December 2020 / John Gould
Issue: 7914 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Privilege
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Book review: Privilege

"This is an excellent reference work to help lawyers get to the bottom, or even beyond the bottom, of difficult points."

Author: Colin Passmore

Publisher: Sweet & Maxwell

ISBN: 9780414057531

Price: £235.00

It is hard to think of an area of almost entirely judge-made law which is more important than legal professional privilege. If a client’s access to lawyers were to be inhibited by the fear that their confidences might later be used against them, legal rights would be obscured and advice would be based on partial truths. Privilege forms part of the very foundation of our legal system and this book is part of that underpinning concrete.

The work shows its author to be an enthusiastic defender of privilege, alert to risks of encroachments from the state and labouring to keep pace with the unremitting development of judicial thinking.

The book covers all of the conventional sub-topics of privilege comprehensively in just under 1,200 closely printed pages. It explains in detail the core principles of legal advice privilege and litigation privilege; how privilege may be lost and the nature of exceptions

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NEWS
Talk of a reserved ‘Welsh seat’ on the Supreme Court is misplaced. In NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC explains that the Constitutional Reform Act treats ‘England and Wales’ as one jurisdiction, with no statutory Welsh slot
The government’s plan to curb jury trials has sparked ‘jury furore’. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke, partner at Hill Dickinson, says the rationale is ‘grossly inadequate’
A year after the $1.5bn Bybit heist, crypto fraud is booming—but so is recovery. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Holloway, founder and CEO of M2 Recovery, warns that scams hit at least $14bn in 2025, fuelled by ‘pig butchering’ cons and AI deepfakes
After Woodcock confirmed no general duty to warn, debate turns to the criminal law. Writing in NLJ this week, Charles Davey of The Barrister Group urges revival of misprision or a modern equivalent
Family courts are tightening control of expert evidence. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Chris Pamplin says there is ‘no automatic right’ to call experts; attendance must be ‘necessary in the interests of justice’ under FPR Pt 25
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