Commentary on Sections Part 8: Miscellaneous and General Provisions about Lawyers Section 190: Legal professional privilege
465.This section states that legal professional privilege (“LPP”) applies to any communication, document, material or information relating to a service provided by an individual who is not a barrister or solicitor at any time when the individual is providing advocacy services, litigation services, conveyancing services or probate services in the individual’s capacity as an authorised person. Such a communication is to be treated as if it were a communication made by a solicitor for the purposes of disclosure. This section reproduces the effect of section 63 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990.
466.Section 190(3) to 190(5) provide that communications made by a licensed body in legal proceedings will be privileged to the same extent that they would be privileged had they been made by a “relevant lawyer”, provided that the communications in question are made through, or under the supervision of, a “relevant lawyer”. “Relevant lawyer” means a barrister, solicitor, or person otherwise entitled to conduct reserved legal activities. These provisions ensure that the clients of certain legal services providers (such as authorised litigators and advocates, recognised bodies, licensed conveyancers, trade mark and patent firms and Alternative Business Structures) have similar LPP protection to clients of solicitors under the common law.