Public Interest Immunity

Many of our cases necessitate the production of documents held by third parties, most often, and where there is also a criminal investigation, the police. As a consequence, public interest immunity issues arise as a matter of course.

The legal principles determining when documents can be withheld are now well established, but in the current age of limited public resources, the practical issues thrown up by these applications are just as important.

Our juniors in particular are used to appearing for police forces, as well as for the main parties in proceedings, and to preparing the detailed skeleton arguments on which public interest immunity issues are usually determined.