The case concerned an email containing legal advice from a solicitor to X Ltd. In the vast majority of cases emails from solicitors to their clients containing legal advice are privileged.
However there are limits to that rule and advice given "for the purpose of effecting iniquity" is not privileged. Traditionally this exception has been very narrowly construed to recognise the importance of maintaining the privileged status of solicitor/client correspondence. Only the most serious cases have fallen within the exception, for example where the legal advice had the purpose of facilitating fraud.
In X v Y Ltd the EAT was willing to accept that legal advice concerning discrimination under the Equality Act could fall into the category of iniquity and be used as evidence in the employee's disability discrimination claim.
Interestingly, the employee was sent a hard copy of the email anonymously.
Whilst this case is based on its rather extreme facts, it is a timely reminder that legal advice privilege is not absolute. On the plus side, in its judgment the EAT was clear that the iniquity test remains a hard one to satisfy.