A Victory for Legal Professional Privilege Between a Lawyer and Their Client
The French Court of Cassation overturned a decision of the Investigation Chamber that had authorised the seizure of a client’s personal notes. The client, a pharmacist suspected of having improperly obtained reimbursement for COVID-19 screening tests, had written the notes following a consultation with a lawyer.
The Court reaffirmed that legal professional privilege is indivisible and inviolable and that it covers any document connected with a legal consultation, regardless of its form, how it is written or whether the lawyer-client relationship subsequently continues.
In practice :
– it does not matter whether the consultation was intended to prepare a defence ;
– it does not matter whether the person subsequently chose a different lawyer ;
– it does not matter whether the document concerned consists of informal or fragmented personal thoughts.
French Court of Cassation, 3 March 2026 (Appeal No. 25-85.994)