# What does privilege mean in document review?

> In document review, privilege is a legal protection - most often solicitor-client or attorney-client privilege, and litigation privilege - that lets a party withhold a document from production even though it is otherwise relevant.

Privilege, in a document review context, is a legal protection that allows a party to withhold an otherwise relevant document from production. Reviewers are usually asked to identify privileged material, code it, and capture enough detail for counsel to assert the claim properly.

**Categories reviewers see most often**

-   **Solicitor-client privilege** (attorney-client privilege in the United States): confidential communications between a lawyer and client for the purpose of seeking or giving legal advice.
-   **Litigation privilege** (broadly comparable to work product protection in the US): material created for the purpose of litigation, including counsel's notes and investigative work.
-   **Common interest privilege**: privileged material shared with a party holding a shared legal interest, without that sharing being treated as a waiver.
-   **Settlement or "without prejudice" communications**, protected in many jurisdictions.

Terminology and scope differ by jurisdiction, so a coding scheme should follow the law governing the matter rather than a generic template.

**What review teams actually do with it**

Privilege coding is rarely a simple yes or no. A single email chain can be partly privileged, which calls for redaction rather than withholding the whole document. Material pulled aside also needs supporting detail - author, recipients, date, and the basis for the claim - to populate a privilege log. Because an inadvertent production can put a claim at risk, privilege calls are typically confirmed by a lawyer rather than left to a first-pass reviewer or a tool.

This is general information about review practice, not legal advice on any particular matter.

Related reading: [Privilege Review in the Age of Generative AI](/stories/privilege-review-in-the-age-of-generative-ai) covers how teams protect privilege while moving faster.

Claira is an AI eDiscovery platform for document review - you can [book a demo](/demos) to see how it fits into an existing review workflow.