Overview#
Every privilege assertion in a formal investigation is a decision that may later be scrutinised in court, and a single missed review or inadvertent disclosure can waive protection over an entire document set. Legal Privilege Claims and Consent Management gives legal teams a tenant-scoped register for filing, reviewing, appealing, and exporting privilege claims against the cases and evidence documents they already hold, alongside a parallel record of every witness and entity consent decision.
Organisations running commissions of inquiry, criminal prosecutions, or civil litigation can attach a privilege claim directly to an evidence document in an active case, follow it through its full review and appeal lifecycle, and produce a court-ready privilege log on demand. The same register tracks voluntary testimony and statutory restriction notices, with full withdrawal handling and timestamped impact notes, so disclosure obligations are met without anyone maintaining a fragile spreadsheet by hand.
By keeping the claim, its grounds, the supporting authority, and every reviewer decision in one auditable place, the capability reduces the risk of missing a decision deadline, avoids the inadvertent waiver that comes from inconsistent record keeping, and leaves a clean trail to point to if a claim is ever challenged.
Key Features#
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Seven recognised privilege grounds: File claims for legal professional privilege, litigation privilege, Section 12 Commission of Investigation Act 2004 privilege, public interest immunity, journalistic privilege, medical privilege, and privilege against self-incrimination, so each assertion is recorded against the correct legal basis rather than a free-text label.
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Document-level and case-level assertions: Attach a claim to a specific evidence document in an active case or assert privilege at case level, capturing the claimant, the grounds, and any supporting authority at the moment the claim is raised.
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Full review and appeal lifecycle: Each claim moves through a clear progression from claimed to under-review to upheld, overruled, or partially upheld, with a dedicated appeal stage that records appeal grounds and a separate appeal decision (appeal upheld or appeal overruled).
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Reviewer accountability and timestamps: Every review and appeal decision captures who decided, when they decided, and the reasoning, building an audit trail that withstands later judicial scrutiny.
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Witness and entity consent records: Maintain consent decisions for witnesses and entities, including Section 10 voluntary cooperation and Section 14 restriction notices, plus data processing, publication, and testimony consent, each tied to the relevant case.
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Withdrawal tracking with impact notes: When a witness withdraws consent, the record captures the withdrawal timestamp and a free-text impact note, so the downstream effect on the case is documented rather than discovered later.
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Court-ready privilege log export: Produce the complete privilege log for a case as an XLSX spreadsheet, with a formatted header row covering claim identifier, privilege type, status, claimant, grounds, supporting authority, claim date, reviewer, review decision, appeal grounds, and appeal decision.
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Tenant isolation and authentication on every action: Reading and writing privilege and consent records is scoped to the calling organisation and requires an authenticated identity, so one tenant can never see or alter another's claims.
Use Cases#
Commissions of Investigation and Inquiry#
Inquiry teams operating under the Commission of Investigation Act 2004 can record Section 12 statutory privilege claims and Section 10 voluntary cooperation alongside Section 14 restriction notices, keeping the statutory basis for each decision explicit and exportable for the commission's own records.
Criminal Prosecutions#
Prosecution teams managing disclosure can register privilege against self-incrimination, public interest immunity, and legal professional privilege over seized material, then track each review and appeal so nothing is disclosed in error and nothing protected is overlooked.
Civil Litigation and Disclosure#
Litigation teams preparing for discovery can assert litigation privilege and legal professional privilege document by document, produce a privilege log for the other side or the court at any stage, and demonstrate a consistent, dated decision history if a claim is contested.
Journalistic and Medical Source Protection#
Newsrooms and clinical investigators can record journalistic privilege and medical privilege over sensitive sources and records, with consent and withdrawal handling that respects a source's or patient's changing wishes over time.
- Legal counsel filing and defending privilege assertions over evidence
- Inquiry and commission secretariats maintaining the statutory record
- Disclosure officers producing logs for opposing parties and the bench
- Compliance and records teams evidencing consent and its withdrawal
Integration#
The capability is exposed as a GraphQL surface that legal case systems and evidence platforms connect to over standard HTTPS. Customers authenticate with OAuth2 and a bearer JWT, and every read and write is automatically confined to the authenticated tenant, so connecting an existing case management front end is a matter of pointing it at the endpoint and presenting a valid token.
Through this surface a customer can list and filter privilege claims, retrieve the full privilege log for a case, and read consent records, then file a claim against an evidence document, record a reviewer or appeal decision, capture a consent decision, or mark consent withdrawn. The privilege log is produced as an XLSX workbook that drops straight into existing document bundles and court filing tools, so legal teams plug the register into their disclosure workflow and gain an auditable, timestamped record without changing how they already work. Claims reference the same case and evidence-document identifiers used elsewhere in the platform, keeping the privilege register consistent with the evidence it protects.
Open Standards#
- Commission of Investigation Act 2004 (Ireland), Section 12: Statutory privilege over information and documents produced to a commission is modelled as a first-class privilege type, so claims made under this section are recorded against their exact legal basis.
- Commission of Investigation Act 2004 (Ireland), Section 10: Voluntary cooperation and voluntary testimony are captured as a named consent type, with the section reference stored against the consent record.
- Commission of Investigation Act 2004 (Ireland), Section 14: Restriction notices that limit publication or onward use are recorded as a distinct consent type, preserving the statutory restriction alongside the evidence it covers.
- Office Open XML Spreadsheet (ECMA-376 / ISO/IEC 29500, .xlsx): The privilege log is exported in the Office Open XML spreadsheet format, giving customers a portable, court-ready artefact that opens in any standard spreadsheet application.
- GraphQL: All read and write operations are served over a GraphQL endpoint, giving integrators a typed, self-describing contract for the privilege and consent register.
- OAuth2 with JSON Web Tokens (RFC 7519): Access is authorised with an OAuth2 bearer token in JWT form, the same open token standard used across the wider platform.
Security and Compliance#
Every operation requires an authenticated identity, and all queries and changes are scoped to the calling organisation so privilege and consent records are never visible across tenant boundaries. Privilege claims follow a controlled lifecycle in which review decisions are constrained to upheld, overruled, or partially upheld, and each decision records the reviewer and a timestamp. Consent records preserve when consent was given and when it was withdrawn, together with an impact note, providing the dated, tamper-evident trail that disclosure obligations and later judicial scrutiny demand.
Last Reviewed: 2026-05-26 Last Updated: 2026-05-26