Solicitors & courts are often indifferent to claimants’ rights to confidentiality, writes Charles Davey, setting out a blueprint for change to the disclosure rules
- Trial bundles often include disclosure of the entirety of personal injury claimants’ medical records. In modest claims, this is unnecessary and inappropriate.
- These records often relate to personal, sensitive and irrelevant details, and disclosure could be in breach of claimants’ right to privacy.
- This article proposes that the Civil Procedure Rule Committee should provide a structure for disclosure in these claims.
In modest personal injury claims, routine, unnecessary and inappropriate disclosure of the entirety of claimants’ medical records is not acceptable. This is in clear violation of a solicitor’s duty of confidentiality and a potential breach of claimants’ rights under Art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, not to mention possible breaches of data protection legislation. To make matters worse, these records are frequently included in trial bundles.
In a claim for damages for life-changing injuries, with a substantial claim for loss of earnings or loss of earning capacity, or for injuries
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