A Channel Islands law firm has been ordered to hand over a copy of a letter it had previously refused to provide – despite the request coming from the person who wrote it.
Collas Crill had unlawfully withheld the document, wrongly claiming it was legally privileged and contained other people’s personal data, the Office of the Data Protection Authority (ODPA) found.
The author had given Collas Crill’s clients money to buy a property, setting out in a letter to their bank that it was a gift.
However, when they later got into a legal dispute the author asked the law firm for a copy, as they’d not kept one themselves.
Brent Homan, Guernsey’s Data Protection Commissioner, said being able to access your own personal information was a “foundational data protection right”.
“Openness and transparency” were “core considerations”, he said.
He added that organisations shouldn’t try to use exemptions “in a way that unnecessarily frustrates an individual’s right of access” – even when claiming information is protected by legal privilege.
A Collas Crill spokesperson told Express the firm had been acting in the “best interests” of its client.
The firm “respected and accepted” the ODPA’s decision, but disagreed with the “legal analysis” and was “disappointed by the outcome”.
Collas Crill said it had now complied with the ODPA’s enforcement order to hand over the letter.
What happened?
The letter was written as part of the process of buying a property, documenting money given by the author to Collas Crill’s clients to help fund the purchase.
It was addressed to the bank handling the mortgage, rather than the law firm’s clients, and was intended to confirm the source of the money and that it was being given as a gift.
The clients brought a physical copy to the law firm’s offices, with an advocate certifying it in June 2023.
A civil dispute later arose between the letter’s author and the recipients of the money, which is now being dealt with through the courts.
The author submitted a subject access request (SAR) to Collas Crill last July, asking for any documents and personal information relating to the money they’d gifted.
The law firm responded by providing a summary of the personal information it held about the author, including their full name, home address, bank account details and email address.
It refused to provide a copy of the letter itself or most of its contents, claiming it was covered by legal privilege and contained personal data belonging to its client.
However, when the letter’s author complained to the ODPA, the authority sided with them over the law firm.
Legal privilege or data protection didn’t justify withholding letter
The ODPA found that neither argument justified withholding the document.
It said the letter had been given to the firm to confirm the source of the money and that it was a gift, rather than for the purpose of obtaining legal advice.
Collas Crill had also failed to demonstrate that any communications containing legal advice about the letter existed or had been provided to its clients.
The regulator also rejected the firm’s reliance on the third-party data exemption, finding that the letter consisted almost entirely of the author’s personal information.
The ODPA said the author had written and signed the letter and was already aware of the circumstances of the purchase.
The authority said the letter only contained limited personal information about the recipients.
The ODPA concluded that Collas Crill had failed to comply with the author’s right of access under the Data Protection (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2017.
It issued an enforcement order requiring the firm to provide the author with a copy of the letter, which Collas Crill said it had now complied with.
