Courts / Ireland / Report

Parts of FAI probe documents are legally privileged, judge rules

Summary

In a High Court ruling on 30 July 2019, Ms Justice Leonie Reynolds determined that certain excerpts from documents supplied by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) and its auditors, Deloitte Ireland LLP, were protected by professional legal privilege and therefore could not be used in the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement's (ODCE) investigation. The judge identified 14 passages within 16 documents that contained privileged material, primarily minutes of FAI board and committee meetings from 1 January 2016 to 21 March 2019. These passages related to legal advice received from the FAI's interim CEO, Ms Rea Walshe, and from A&L Goodbody solicitors concerning potential sponsorship agreements, liability issues, internal investigations, appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, licence applications, and litigation strategy. The judge ordered that these privileged passages be redacted so they remain unseen by the ODCE.

Who, what, where, when and why

What: Report matter: Parts of FAI probe documents are legally privileged, judge rules. Procedural stage: hearing_or_decision

When:

• January 1st 2016 Other
• March 21st, 2019 Other
• February 2016 Other
• November 2016 Other
• June 2017 Hearing Or Sentence
• January 2018 Hearing Or Sentence
• February 2018 Other
• March 2019 Other
• February 2019 Other
• April 2018 Hearing Or Sentence
• December 5th, 2017 Hearing Or Sentence
• April 15th 2019 Other
• 2019-07-30 Publication

Places mentioned

Topics

Stage Hearing Or Decision

Read the original CNI report