Burmah Oil v Bank of England, [1979] UKHL 4
Citation:Burmah Oil v Bank of England, [1979] UKHL 4.
Rule of thumb:How do you make a request for information from the other side in Court? The request for information must be specific or else it is deemed a fishing expedition and an invalid request.
Rule of thumb:What do you do if information needed for a Court procedure is confidential? This has to be considered in private proceedings not open to the public with a duty of confidentiality on all the parties regarding what has been written.
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Judgment:
The Court affirmed that a clear reason of what is thought/speculated/suspected to be in evidence must be provided. If this is not provided then it deemed to be a fishing expedition and the evidence cannot be provided in any form. The Court further explained that if there is evidence which could potentially be sensitive then this can be considered in private proceedings which are not open to the public and which all parties are bound by confidentiality over.
Ratio-decidendi:
‘A judge may well feel that he cannot profitably embark on such a balancing exercise without himself seeing the disputed documents. May he take a peep?’ and ‘But it has been suggested that the position is otherwise where the ‘class’ claim is not challenged. I see no reason why this should be so once it is postulated that the ‘withheld’ class documents are ‘likely’ to contain material substantially useful to the party seeking discovery. That qualification is necessary for what is no more that a ‘fishing expedition’ ought not to be advanced by the judge’s having a peep to see whether they contain an attractive catch’, Lord Edmund-Davis
Warning: This is not professional legal advice. This is not professional legal education advice. Please obtain professional guidance before embarking on any legal course of action. This is just an interpretation of a Judgment by persons of legal insight & varying levels of legal specialism, experience & expertise. Please read the Judgment yourself and form your own interpretation of it with professional assistance.