‘The Court of Appeal has recently affirmed the proposition that a person can be liable under the misuse of private information tort for revealing that someone is the subject of a police investigation before they have been charged. This raises important questions about the relationship between the citizen and the state when the former has the latter under investigation. But so far that relationship has not been central to the courts’ decision-making on this issue. Rather, the basis for liability has been a broad-brush conclusion that a person will generally have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the fact that they “have simply come under suspicion” of the police or other state authority. This blog post will suggest there is a better way to resolve these tricky cases.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 18th February 2021
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
‘The London Borough of Lambeth has won a final injunction against a man who was able to remove a redaction on papers concerning child welfare.’
Local Government Lawyer, 11th February 2021
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘In this post, Neil Newing and Olivia Flasch who both practice at Signature Litigation, comment upon the decision handed down by the UK Supreme Court in the matter of Halliburton Company v Chubb Bermuda Insurance Ltd (Formerly known as Ace Bermuda Insurance Ltd) [2020] UKSC 48. They ask: is the decision a missed opportunity?’
UKSC Blog, 2nd February 2021
Source: ukscblog.com
‘The Court of Appeal’s recent decision in Racing Partnership Ltd & others v. Sports Information Services Ltd [2020] EWCA Civ 1300 has provided clarity on the economic tort of unlawful means conspiracy and provided much food for thought on claims for breach of confidence.’
Littleton Chambers, 1st December 2020
Source: littletonchambers.com
‘Practitioners acting in the more challenging cases of conspiracies involving the misuse of confidential information or otherwise interested in the history and development of tort (outside the tort of negligence) will find this case compelling and essential reading.’
Hardwicke Chambers, 26th October 2020
Source: hardwicke.co.uk
‘A woman has been sentenced to an immediate term of imprisonment of 12 months after a High Court judge found she had forged a purported court order and sent it to an NHS trust with the intention of obtaining the medical confidential records of a relative, despite the court refusing to direct this.’
Local Government Lawyer, 5th October 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘A case that shows how the committal procedure works is Centek Holdings Ltd. and others v Giles EWHC 1682 (Ch) (26 June 2020). For over 17 years Mr Trustram Files has been the claimant companies’ product development manager. In August 2019 Mr Giles left the claimants to take up a job in Malaysia. He took with him what was described as “very substantial amounts of confidential and proprietary material” belonging to his employer. His bosses suspected what he was doing and contained an order (“the Order”) from Mr Jystice Norris “not to use, access or distribute Centek Material (paragraph 2 of the Order), abide by specific restrictive covenants (paragraph 3 of the Order), disclose and preserve Centek Material and the “Devices” and “Accounts” on which it was kept (paragraphs 4 and 5(a)-(b) of the Order), preserve disclosable documents (paragraph 5(f) of the Order) and facilitate the imaging of such Devices and Accounts by “Independent Experts” (paragraph 6 of the Order).”‘
NIPC Law, 7th July 2020
Source: nipclaw.blogspot.com
‘The quality of legal help for suspects in police custody has “suffered significantly” due to Covid-19 amid concerns over confidentiality and restrictions on lawyers talking to clients, a new report has found.’
Legal Futures, 30th June 2020
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘PHG, linked with Cambridge University, provides independent advice and evaluations of biomedical and digital innovations in healthcare. PHG has recently published a series of reports exploring the interpretability of machine learning in this context. The one I will focus on in this post is the report considering the requirements of the GDPR for machine learning in healthcare and medical research by way of transparency, interpretability, or explanation. Links to the other reports are given at the end of this post.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 18th June 2020
Source: ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘In the recent case of Trailfinders v Travel Counsellors & Ors [2020] EWHC 591 (IPEC) the court reiterated that the test was not subjective: the recipient of the client list did not have to know the information was confidential. It was objective: in equity the recipient is under a duty of confidence whenever he ought to know that the information received is fairly and reasonably to be regarded as confidential, irrespective of his actual state of mind. Further, this was now also the statutory position because under Art. 4 (4) of Directive (EU) 2016/943 on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition: “The acquisition, use or disclosure of a trade secret shall also be considered unlawful whenever a person, at the time of the acquisition, use or disclosure, knew or ought, under the circumstances, to have known that the trade secret had been obtained directly or indirectly from another person who was using or disclosing the trade secret unlawfully within the meaning of paragraph 3.”’
Employment Blog, 9th June 2020
Source: employment11kbw.com
‘In Duchy Farm Kennels Ltd v Steels [2020] EWHC 1208 (QB), the High Court addressed the consequences of a party breaching the confidentiality clause in a COT3 settlement, noting that the issue of law arising regarding the status of the clause had not been the subject of a previous appellate ruling.’
3PB, 2nd June 2020
Source: www.3pb.co.uk
‘It is well established that a litigant may restrain his former solicitors from acting for his opponent where: (i) those former solicitors are in possession of relevant, adverse confidential information and (ii) there is even a slight risk of that information being disclosed (Bolkiah v KPMG).1 But the issue in Glencairn, was whether a litigant could prevent solicitors from acting for his current opponent because that firm had acted for a former opponent in similar litigation which was settled on confidential terms. Did the solicitors’ knowledge of the applicant’s confidential settlement strategy in similar litigation (against a different party) give an unfair advantage which meant the solicitors should be prohibited from acting?’
Hailsham Chambers, 13th May 2020
Source: www.hailshamchambers.com
‘In Duchy Farm Kennels Limited v Steels [2020] EWHC 1208 (QB) Alexander PritchardJones appeared in an important case about the effect of breaches of confidentiality clauses contained within settlement agreements.’
St Ives Chambers, 14th May 2020
Source: www.stiveschambers.co.uk
‘A solicitor accused of disclosing to a client confidential information about a former client has been cleared of wrongdoing by a disciplinary tribunal.’
Legal Futures, 11th May 2020
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘Children are “coming in and out of the room” during remote family law hearings and in some cases witnessing their “distressed” parents, a major study has found.’
Legal Futures, 7th May 2020
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘During these unprecedented times, working from home on a full-time basis has become the ‘new normal’. This is in stark contrast to before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic began, when out of 32.6 million people in employment, only 1.7 million regularly worked from home. The change to enforced homeworking was swift and represented significant changes to the lifestyle and routines of both employers and employees, which, in turn, creates a number of legal and practical issues for employers. It is currently unknown how long homeworking will last for, or indeed if the outbreak of COVID-19 will cause a shift towards homeworking on a permanent basis.’
Thomas More Chambers, 30th April 2020
Source: www.thomasmore.co.uk
‘The charity watchdog is embroiled in a row with ex-employees of the Alzheimer’s Society after clearing it of wrongdoing, following claims in a Guardian investigation over payouts to workers who signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).’
The Guardian, 4th May 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
© Inner Temple Library 2021