Can a party disclose the fact/existence of an embargoed judgment under the CPR without disclosing its substance? Para 2.4 of CPR PD 40.E simply provides that a copy of the draft judgment, may be supplied, in confidence, to the parties provided that (a) neither the draft judgment nor its substance is disclosed to any other person or used in the public domain, but it does not distinguish the fact.

While the question focuses on subparagraph (a) of CPR PD 40E, para.2.4, regard should be had to the breadth of the provision as a whole. Subparagraph (b) of CPR PD 40E states:

‘…(b) no action is taken (other than internally) in response to the draft judgment, before the judgment is handed down.’

Therefore, the question is whether disclosing the existence of an embargoed judgment to third parties would be a non-internal action in response to the draft judgment.

The statement ‘we have the draft judgment which is due to be handed down on X date’ seems innocuous. However, a client is more likely to want to draw attention to the decision