‘Without prejudice’ documents—privilege lost by inclusion in settlement agreement (BGC Brokers LP and other companies v Tradition (UK) Ltd and others)

Table of contents

• What are the practical implications of this case?
• What was the background?
• What did the court decide?
• Case details

Article summary

Dispute Resolution analysis: What are the consequences if documents created to try to achieve a settlement, and therefore protected by ‘without prejudice’ privilege, are attached to or mentioned in a later settlement agreement? In BGC Brokers LP and other companies v Tradition (UK) Ltd, the court considered whether such a settlement agreement containing previously protected material could, as the claimants argued, be partially privileged and partially not. It concluded that there was no such partial privilege. The court also found that there was no litigation privilege in documents passing between the opposing parties.