Disclosure to non-party

The Law Debenture Trust Corp (Channel Islands) v Lexington Insurance Co and others [2003] EWHC 2297 (Comm)

It is essential for a court invited to exercise its inherent jurisdiction to grant to a non-party access to written skeleton or outline submissions to investigate what part they were playing or had played in the trial. Where a hearing had commenced and counsel provided the judge with written submissions which were not read out in court and the hearing ended in a judgment, the court’s discretion ought to be exercised in favour of access. The result would be the same if, by the end of the trial, certain issues had been abandoned. Accordingly, where the trial had begun but settled before judgment was given, the intervening nonparty was entitled to an order for access to the opening submissions except where those documents made, or referred to, allegations of fraud which were not pleaded.