Court of Appeal rules on LPP and ‘relevant filing system’ under DPA 1998 (Dawson-Damer and others v Taylor Wessing LPP; Taylor Wessing LPP v Dawson-Damer)

Table of contents

• What are the practical implications of this case?
• What was the background?
• LPP Issue in the High Court
• Data Protection Issue in the High Court
• The appeal
• What did the court decide?
• LPP issue
• Data Protection Issue
• Case details

Article summary

Information Law analysis: The Court of Appeal has considered whether a law firm was entitled to rely on the legal professional privilege (LPP) exemption under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA 1998) (the LPP Issue) and whether certain paper files held by that law firm constituted a ‘relevant filing system’ within the meaning of DPA 1998 (the Data Protection Issue). In summary, the Court of Appeal found that LPP would not apply but also that the relevant paper files did not constitute a ‘relevant filing system’.