From 2 October 2006 persons not involved in litigation (non-parties) will be able to obtain copies of all statements of case on the court file-claims and defences-without the need of any prior court permission. This leaves the burden for opposing such disclosure on the unhappy parties that wish to restrict non-parties to such information.
If parties wish to dispute the disclosure of statements of case they may do so but they will have the burden of proof in so showing and will face an uphill battle in persuading a court to exercise its discretion in their favour.
There will be no need for non-parties to justify why they want copies by way of a court application for such an order although such copies will not include ancillary papers and thus will be quite limited.
Any ancillary papers that are desired will have to be sought by the non-parites appealing to the court by way of application on the grounds of interests of justice. The court will exercise its discretion in so granting though the basis of this remains unclear.
The above change makes arbitration more appealing as confidentiality is usually the norm.
This will mean clients shall have consider how to plead their case with the regime in mind.
If a party is concerned about confidentiality we can apply to court to secure them confidentially.
