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By Riyaz Jariwalla

A Norwich Pharmacal order is a court order that requires a respondent to disclose certain documents or information to the applicant. The respondent must be a party who is involved or mixed up in a wrongdoing, whether innocently or not, and is unlikely to be a party to the potential proceedings. An Norwich Pharmacal order will only be granted where "necessary" in the interests of justice. Orders are commonly used to identify the proper defendant to an action or to obtain information to plead a claim.

A Norwich Pharmacal order can be obtained pre-action, during the course of an action, and post-judgment. But cannot be obtained in support of foreign proceedings (s 25(7) of the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982).

Riyaz Jariwalla is a solicitor who specialises in intellectual property law and commercial litigation.