Disclosure of legal case information (FOI)

Request

I would like to know what information can be disclosed publicly about civil legal cases (including divorce cases) without committing an offence.

Is there a difference to this when documents have been referenced or produced in other legal cases.

Response

For civil cases in general all parties involved in a case have access to all case information which is filed with the court. The degree and timing of disclosure of case information to individuals who are not parties to the case or to the wider public is controlled directly by the Court following its published Rules and Practice Directions and applying any legislation in place regulating disclosure of information for the particular type of case. Rules of Court and Practice Directions are published here:

Jersey Legal Information Board

Divorce cases are an example where legislation directly restricts the information which it is legal to publish. For a divorce case Article 39 of the Matrimonial Causes (Jersey) Law 1949  defines what it is lawful to print or publish, or cause or procure to be printed or published. See link below:

Matrimonial Causes (Jersey) Law 1949

Aside from specific regulations which apply to certain types of case the Court will take into consideration any effect on the rights of individuals which may be caused by publication of information from court files. These rights include those protected by the Human Rights (Jersey) Law 2000, such as the right to a fair trial and the privacy rights protected by the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

It should be noted that the Courts do routinely publish judgments on the JLIB website and that this case information, approved by the Court is available publicly. The public disclosure of any further information from a case file should not be undertaken without taking legal advice and if necessary seeking permission from the Court. We are not able to provide legal advice in general or such legal advice in particular: such legal advice will depend entirely on the particular circumstances of the case and therefore from a Freedom of Information point of view we do not hold any records in response to this request.

The following is link to the Jersey Legal Information Board (JLIB) homepage:

JLIB Homepage