Knowledge

The Guernsey Court of Appeal (the "Court") has reaffirmed the principle of open justice and the high threshold that must be met before proceedings will be heard in private. 

In the matter of the ABC Trust [2026] GCA 008, the Court refused an application for full privacy orders on an appeal from a decision of the Royal Court.

Instead, the Court held that anonymisation measures were sufficient to protect the parties' identities in an instance where Royal Court proceedings were already being held in private.

The decision confirms that such orders will only be granted where they are strictly necessary in the interests of justice.

The primary issue was whether an appeal concerning a Guernsey trust should be heard in private, with reporting restrictions, or proceed in public subject to anonymity orders.

The starting point is the principle of open justice – the presumption that all matters before the courts of Guernsey should take place in public.

Whilst the courts of Guernsey are well accustomed to issues of privacy in trust proceedings, any departure from that principle must satisfy a test of strict necessity. 

It is well established that the test requires the applicant to demonstrate, with clear evidence, that privacy is required in the interests of justice and is the only appropriate solution, rather than lesser measures such as anonymisation or a naming protocol.

In ABC Trust, the Court applied and reinforced those principles.

It held that the applicant had failed to discharge its evidential burden and that anonymisation was a sufficient and proportionate alternative.

The application relied on a hypothetical breach of an anonymisation order and crucially lacked any evidence justifying a fully private hearing. 

Key takeaways

• Privacy is not automatic in trust proceedings, even where sensitive issues arise.
• Applicants must provide specific evidence explaining why lesser measures will not suffice.
• The Court will favour case-specific protections over blanket privacy orders.
• Privacy in the Royal Court does not necessarily extend to the Court of Appeal.