Recovery of "Deleted" Email

[Francis Davey]

I think there's some confusion about the role of a Norwich Pharmacal Order.

NPO's are an exceptional remedy used to obtain pre-action disclosure
against a person who will not be a party to any subsequent claim.

Once a claim has been issued, things are different. The court then has
a power to make an order for disclosure against non-parties in a
broader range of circumstances than it would for an NPO. The relevant
rule is 31.17:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/courts-and-tribunals/courts/procedure-rules/civil/contents/parts/part31.htm#IDAWKTIC

As you will see there is no requirement for being caught up in the
action or facilitating or whatever as there migh tbe with an NPO.

Note that the duty of  "disclosure" is a duty to state whether a
document exists or has existed:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/courts-and-tribunals/courts/procedure-rules/civil/contents/parts/part31.htm#IDAALGT

This point is often missed - to my exasperation sometimes. You may be
under a duty to disclose documents that you have deleted - and rule
31.17 gives one example of why that might be useful because, while no
order for inspection would be made against you (logically because you
no longer have the document) it may still be obtainable.

So, the court has ample powers to get hold of a document if you really need it.

Francis