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12 Nov 2010
AN APPLICATION TO APPEAL the courts' decision against extending legal professional privilege (LPP) to accountants has been filed at the Supreme Court.
Prudential has battled to prevent HM Revenue & Customs from gaining access to tax advice it received from PwC, claiming the advice was protected under legal professional privilege. However the High Court and Court of Appeal have decided against extending LPP beyond lawyers.
Further reading
The ICAEW and Law Society made representations for and against extending LPP to tax advisers respectively, during the Court of Appeal hearing.
Accountancy Age understands that the Supreme Court, which replaced the House of Lords as the highest appeal court in the UK in 2009, will decide early in the New Year whether to hear the case.
Ian Young (pictured), ICAEW tax faculty technical manager, said the institute was reviewing its next step based on the Supreme Court's decision.
Prudential would not comment about the application process.
In September the Court of Appeal reject claims that privilege should be extended to accountants on the grounds that what mattered was who was providing the advice and lawyers have a professional to the courts. Accountants do not.
It was pointed out that a legislative change would be required for accountants to claim legal privilege.
Supreme Court photo by Jaume Meneses, from flikr.
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Visitor comments Add your comment
professional privilege
Isn't it a bit strange that it is lawyers that will be deciding whether lawyers should be the only ones with this privilege? With the Law Society against expanding this to accountants, surely the judges and barristers should bar themselves from any potential trial due to their "interest" in the case!
cheers
Hywel Williams
Glamorgan Business School
Posted by: Huwel Williams, 12 Nov 2010 | 17:56
legal professional privilege
As an accountancy student who has a law degree and has also worked in the legal profession, I do not think that LPP should be extended to accountants. The reason?
1.) The first duty of any Lawyer in Britain, whether Solicitor or Barrister is to the Court, not their client. This is to uphold the principle of justice.
2.) A Solicitor is an officer of the Court - the full title is Solicitor of the Supreme Court.
3.) An accountant's first duty is to his client - if LPP was extended to accountants they would be getting up to all sorts of dodgy deals without being forced to divulge these so justice would be compromised.
Posted by: whitegates, 22 Apr 2011 | 19:45