Welcome to our latest Coffee Break in which we look at the latest legal and practical developments for employers
When will a grievance investigation report be privileged?
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has recently considered whether the original of a grievance investigation report, that was subsequently changed on legal advice and by the investigator, had to be disclosed to the employee or whether it was subject to legal professional privilege or litigation privilege.
Legal professional privilege and litigation privilege
Legal professional privilege extends to all communications between a client and their legal adviser for the purpose of obtaining advice and applies whether there is litigation in prospect or not. Litigation privilege only applies to communications which, at their inception, come into existence with the dominant purpose of being used in aid of pending or contemplated litigation and can cover documents/communications (produced for the purposes of existing or contemplated litigation) between a lawyer and client, lawyer and third party and a client and a third party.
What happened?
Here, the employee raised a grievance under the employer's Dignity at Work and Study policy. The employer appointed an independent member of staff to investigate the grievance and produce a report. The employer's external legal advisors suggested a number of changes to the report and the investigator also made a number of changes before a final version of the report was...
MATAGORDA COUNTY — A Bay City physician is facing a federal False Claims Act lawsuit alleging he fraudulently billed Medicare nearly $500,000 for surgical neurostimulator electrode implantations h...