CPRs Allow For Continued Document Redaction, Rules High Court

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LEGAL UPDATE: The High Court has ruled that the entitlement to redact documents survived the coming into force of the CPR and applied equally to the right to inspect under CPR 31.14 and to the requirements of standard disclosure under CPR 31.6.

A Mr and Mrs Thompson had entered into loan agreements and guarantees with the Bank of Scotland (Ireland) Ltd. The Thompsons' loan was part of a wider loan portfolio sale to Ennis Property Finance. The Thompsons defaulted on the loans and guarantees and Ennis sued the Thompsons for the amounts owed.

The Thompsons asked the High Court to force Ennis to disclose unredacted versions of documents relating to the contract of sale and the assignment from Bank of Scotland to Ennis. Ennis had redacted commercially sensitive and, in its view, irrelevant information in the copies disclosed. The Thompsons claimed that the redacted material may include conditions for the assignment which, if not complied with, would render the assignment invalid and strip Ennis of its right to sue them.

The Thompsons based their application for unredacted disclosure on three grounds:

that a party has a right to inspect unredacted documents in accordance with CPR 31.14 save where privilege or public interest immunity applies; that a party must disclose unredacted documents where disclosure is prescribed by a practice direction (disclosure in this case being prescribed in CPR PD 16.7.6) , in accordance with CPR 31.6(c), save where privilege or public interest immunity applies; and that the material redacted either adversely affected the Bank's claim or supported the Thompsons' defences and should, therefore, be disclosed in accordance with the standard disclosure requirements contained in CPR 31.6. The Thompsons acknowledged that the redaction of irrelevant material was standard practice before the CPR. The judge said that because case-law continued to permit redaction and there was no authority indicating that this practice had changed after the introduction of the CPR, the practice of redaction survived the coming into force of the CPR. The judge said that it applied equally to the right to...