CEDH · CASELAW;JUDGMENTS;CHAMBER;ENG — 18 décembre 2025

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THE CZECH REPUBLIC (Applications nos. 37514/20 and 4 others – see appended list)   JUDGMENT   Art 8 • Private life • Correspondence • Privileged communications between the applicant criminal defence lawyers and their client seized from the latter’s electronic devices and put in the criminal case file • Relevant domestic framework lacking foreseeability, clarity and procedural safeguards for the protection of privileged data on seized electronic devices • Interference not “in accordance with the law” Art 13 (+ Art 8) • Lack of an effective remedy enabling the applicants to seek removal of the privileged data from their client’s case file   Prepared by the Registry. Does not bind the Court.   STRASBOURG 18 December 2025   FINAL   18/03/2026   This judgment has become final under Article 44 § 2 of the Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision.   In the case of Černý and Others v. the Czech Republic, The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of:   María Elósegui , President ,   Georgios A. Serghides,   Gilberto Felici,   Andreas Zünd,   Diana Sârcu,   Mykola Gnatovskyy , judges ,   Pavel Simon , ad hoc judge , and Victor Soloveytchik, Section Registrar, Having regard to: the applications (nos.   37514/20, 37525/20, 37533/20, 37546/20 and 37555/20) against the Czech Republic lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by five Czech nationals listed in the appendix (“the applicants”) on 18 August 2018; the decision to give notice to the Czech Government (“the Government”) of the complaints concerning Articles 6 § 1, 8 and 13 of the Convention, and to declare the remainder of the applications inadmissible; the parties’ observations; the decision of the President of the Section to appoint Mr P. Simon to sit as an ad hoc judge (Article 26 § 4 of the Convention and Rule 29 § 1 (a) of the Rules of Court), Ms K. Šimáčková, the judge elected in respect of the Czech Republic, having withdrawn from sitting in the case (Rule 28 § 3); Having deliberated in private on 18 November 2025, Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date: INTRODUCTION 1.     The applications concern mainly various communications between the applicants, who were criminal defence lawyers, and their client. Those communications were extracted from the client’s electronic devices and put on his criminal case file. The applicants relied on Articles 6, 8 and 13 of the Convention. THE FACTS 2.     The names and personal details of the applicants are set out in the Annex to the judgment. The applicants were represented by Mr Z. Koudelka, a lawyer practising in Brno. 3.     The Government were represented by their Agent, Mr P. Konůpka, of the Ministry of Justice. 4.     The facts of the case may be summarised as follows.         THE PLACEMENT OF DATA IN THE CASE FILE 5.     The five applicants were lawyers representing Z. in two sets of criminal proceedings, one on charges of membership of a criminal group, making false accusations, bribery, and aiding and abetting those and other crimes and the other, proceeding in parallel, on charges of tax evasion. 6.     On 2 December 2016, during a search of Z.’s home which had been ordered in the first set of criminal proceedings, the police seized Z.’s smartphone and electronic tablet. Both electronic devices contained, among other things, correspondence between Z. and his defence lawyers, including the applicants; various draft court submissions; notes on legal strategy in both of Z.’s criminal cases; preparatory notes for the questioning of witnesses; and other material protected by legal professional privilege. 7.     On 23 November 2017 the Brno Municipal Court invited the Prague Criminal Institute to carry out an expert examination of the content of the electronic devices. They were asked to extract all the data, including data that had been deleted, and any electronic communications transmitted from and to various applications on those devices. 8.     On 1 December 2017 Z. filed formal objections in the Municipal Court to the expert and to the terms of reference of the expert report set by the Municipal Court. He emphasised that the electronic devices contained privileged material. He objected to an expert examination in the terms set out by the court because that would make his defence strategy and confidential material prepared by his defence lawyers accessible to all his co-defendants, including those in the second set of criminal proceedings, and to the prosecutor. There was no response from the court. Z. repeated his objections during an oral hearing on 10 January 2018. The Municipal Court dismissed his objections without giving reasons. 9.     By 18 February 2018 the content of the electronic devices, including the communications between Z. and the applicants, had been extracted. It comprised over 20,000 pages of material, which was put on the Municipal Court case file. During an oral hearing on 28 February 2018 the presiding judge, K., transmitted the contents of the electronic devices together with the expert report on Blu-ray discs to the prosecutor and all Z.’s co-defendants and their lawyers. 10 .     On 27 March 2018, during the oral hearing, K. said that none of the data extracted from the devices had so far been found to be relevant as evidence in the proceedings. He also rejected a further request by Z. to remove the material from the case file. 11 .     On 1 June 2018, responding to a question from a journalist, K. stated the following: "The content of the devices constitutes evidence, and therefore all parties to the proceedings have the right to see it. And if there are any communications there, whether private or with defence lawyers, that does not matter at all — there has not been any kind of electronic interception."      THE ATTEMPTS TO HAVE THE MATERIAL REMOVED FROM THE CASE FILE 12 .     On 31 August 2018 Z.’s defence lawyer D.Z., whose correspondence with Z. was also in the case file, asked the Municipal Court on behalf of himself and Z. to remove any privileged material from the case file. He put his request in writing on 3 and 17 September 2018. 13 .     In reaction to the Municipal Court’s continued retention of the data in the case file, Z. asked the Ministry of Justice (“the Ministry”) to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the presiding judge, K. The Czech Bar Association (“the CBA”) made the same request, expressing concern that K.’s decision to keep the data in the case file seriously undermined Z.’s defence and meant he could not have a fair trial. 14 .     On 4 September 2018 the Ministry responded that it would not initiate disciplinary proceedings against K. It did not consider that the judge had i)   violated a clearly formulated statutory provision; ii) failed to follow a binding opinion of a superior court; or iii) unjustifiably refused to follow the established case-law of the Supreme Court, which were the only legal grounds for initiating disciplinary proceedings against a judge. The Ministry also said that there was a lacuna in the law since it did not regulate the treatment of lawyer-client communications found on seized electronic devices. Articles 88(1) and 158d(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (“CCP”) prohibited putting on file records of intercepted communications or surveillance material that included communications between a defence lawyer and his or her client and producing them at trial, but those provisions could not be used by analogy. The Ministry further observed that although in the present case the content of the electronic devices had been made accessible to the other parties in the proceedings, it would not be used at trial as the Municipal Court had not identified any of it as relevant evidence. 15.     On 18 April 2018 Z. lodged a criminal complaint against K. On 11   September 2018 the Vyškov District Prosecutor responded that criminal proceedings would not be initiated but expressed agreement with the Czech Bar Association’s opinion that the actions complained about might constitute a disciplinary offence by K. 16.     On 20 September 2018 Z.’s lawyer, D.Z., lodged an application under Section 174a of the Courts and Judges Act (Law no. 6/2002) on his own behalf with the Brno Regional Court asking it to set a time-limit by which the Municipal Court would have to have removed the privileged material from the case file. On 30 October 2018 Z. lodged the same request on his own behalf. 17 .     On 24 October 2018 and 9 November 2018, respectively, the Brno Regional Court denied the applications. It reiterated that it could only set a   time ‑ limit under the provision referred to for a lower court to complete procedures it had already decided to carry out, or where it was self-evident from the law and the case file that those procedures would have to be carried out. However, D.Z.’s and Z.’s applications were for orders setting time-limits for procedures which the Municipal Court had refused to carry out. Furthermore, it was not clear from the law and the case file that they had to be carried out. The Municipal Court’s refusal was therefore a decision that it was open to that court to make.    THE CONSTITUTIONAL APPEAL 18 .     On 31 December 2018 the applicants together with Z. and his other defence lawyers who were affected by the material being put in the case file lodged a constitutional appeal against “another interference” by a public authority pursuant to Section 72(1)(a) of the Constitutional Court Act (Law no.   182/1993) (see paragraph 31 below). They argued that putting the privileged data on the case file violated various of their fundamental rights, including their right to respect for their private life and correspondence. 19 .     On 22 March 2019 K., on behalf of the Municipal Court, submitted his observations on the constitutional appeal. He considered that it was not possible to remove the data by applying Article 88(1) of the CCP by analogy, since the seized devices belonged to Z., who was not a defence lawyer, and their content was therefore not privileged. Furthermore, in K.’s view, the Municipal Court did not have the right to sift through the data and select what could be used as evidence or to make orders for material to be deleted. 20 .     On 29 May 2019 the CBA lodged an application for a leave to intervene in the proceedings. It claimed a right to intervene under section 76(3) of the Constitutional Court Act (vedlejší účastenství ) because the case had implications beyond the applicants’ own interests and affected the status of criminal defence rights in general. It asserted that intercepting privileged communications between a client and his or her defence lawyer was unlawful, in breach of fundamental rights, and in violation of the principles of a fair trial. In its view, the applicants had clearly exhausted all remedies available to them. 21 .     On 21 June 2019 the applicants’ legal representative logged into the Constitutional Court’s web-based application, which allows electronic access to Constitutional Court case files. 22 .     On 20 November 2019 the Constitutional Court dismissed the applicants’ constitutional appeal as manifestly ill-founded in its decision no.   IV. ÚS 4342/18, which was served on the applicants on   23   November   2019. It held that the applicants’ fundamental rights had not been affected because privilege was the right of the client, not the lawyer. It stated the following: “23.     The right to confidentiality of communications between accused persons and their lawyers is not a right that generally belongs to the lawyer, but rather a projection of the accused’s right   (...) It is therefore not the right of the defence lawyer – counsel in the proceedings – and even less so a fundamental right guaranteed or protected by the Czech Charter of Fundamental Rights or the Convention, which the Constitutional Court is primarily called upon to protect. Therefore, the other interference by a public authority described above cannot constitute a violation of the prohibition on the abuse of legal rights or exceed permissible limitations on those rights (Articles 17 and 18 of the Convention), nor can it impinge upon the claimed fundamental human rights and freedoms (Articles 7 and 10 of the Charter, Article 8 of the Convention), or the right to freely choose a profession (Article 26 of the Charter) (...).” The Constitutional Court also granted the CBA the leave to intervene in the proceedings and briefly summarised its argument in its judgment.   THE COMPENSATION PROCEEDINGS 23.     On 21 August 2018 the applicants lodged a claim with the Ministry under the State Liability Act (Law no. 82/1998) seeking an apology and compensation for non-pecuniary damage caused by the official misconduct of the Municipal Court. They complained that the court had made the contents of their privileged communications with their client accessible to the prosecutors and co-defendants. There was no response from the Ministry. 24.     On 22 February 2019 the applicants and the other affected defence lawyers lodged a civil action in the Prague 2 District Court seeking an apology and 100,000 Czech crowns (CZK) (approximately 4,000 euros) in compensation. 25 .     On 3 December 2020 the District Court decided that the acts complained of constituted official misconduct by the Municipal Court and ordered the Ministry to pay each of the applicants 25,000 CZK (approximately 1,000 euros) in compensation for non-pecuniary damage. The remainder of the action was dismissed. The District Court held that by allowing other persons to access the privileged correspondence between Z. and his defence lawyers, the Municipal Court had violated the Convention, the Czech Charter of Fundamental Rights and Article 2 of the CCP. The District Court also found that the statements made by the applicants at the oral hearings in the compensation proceedings were proof of the non-pecuniary damage caused by that misconduct. The Ministry appealed against the judgment. 26 .     On 13 August 2021 the Prague Municipal Court reversed the District Court’s judgment by dismissing the applicants’ claim for compensation and requiring the Ministry to apologise to the first, second and third applicants in writing. The Prague Municipal Court endorsed the District Court’s finding that the Brno Municipal Court had acted unlawfully by making the contents of lawyer ‑ client communications accessible to prosecutors and co-defendants. It referred to the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, the Constitutional Court’s case law, and Section 88 of the CCP, all of which it held established the specific protection of communications between a lawyer and his or her client. However, it held that the first applicant, who had not participated in the oral hearings in the District Court, had failed to demonstrate the non-pecuniary damage suffered and was thus not entitled to any form of remedy. It also held that the fifth applicant was not entitled to any remedy because as a trainee lawyer substituting the second applicant, she had not had an independent relationship with the client that would give rise to legal professional privilege. The Municipal Court further considered that a written apology was the most appropriate remedy for the rest of the applicants. Neither the applicants nor the Ministry lodged an appeal on points of law. 27 .     On 25 October 2021 the Ministry sent written apologies to the second, third and fourth applicants. 28 .     On 16 April 2025 the Supreme Court delivered its judgment no.   30   Cdo 1849/2024 in proceedings brought by the applicants’ client Z. for compensation for the same wrongful action of putting privileged material in the Brno Municipal Court case file as had been complained about by the applicants. The Supreme Court upheld Z.’s appeal on points of law and remitted the case to the first-instance court to decide the quantum of compensation. The Supreme Court held that that it had been unlawful to put the material in the case file. Prior to examining the material and considering whether it would be relevant evidence at trial, the Municipal Court should have stored the privileged material on separate data carriers and not included them in the criminal case file. The Supreme Court also held that the expert engaged in the case to examine the content of the electronic devices should have been instructed accordingly. The Supreme Court concluded: “(...) in the case of the seizure of data carriers and their contents, including, inter alia , communications between the accused and their defence lawyers and material which is clearly unnecessary for the criminal proceedings and where there is an unlawful breach of the injured parties’ rights to privacy and control over their own information, the court’s official misconduct consists in its failure to ensure that such information never entered the case file.” RELEVANT LEGAL FRAMEWORK AND PRACTICE         DOMESTIC LAW     The Code of Criminal Procedure (Law no. 141/1961) 29.     Article 65(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides that an accused person, a victim, an interested party, and the defence lawyers and other representatives have the right to examine the court case file and make notes and copies at their own expense. Other persons may do so with the consent of the president of the chamber, which may be given only where that is necessary for the exercise of their rights. Under   Article 88(1), the interception and recording of telecommunications between a defence lawyer and an accused person is not permissible. Where a   police authority discovers that it is intercepting and recording telecommunications between an accused person and his or her defence lawyer, it must destroy the recordings without undue delay and must not use the information obtained in any way. Under Article 158d(1), if the police discover that they are carrying out surveillance on an accused person while that person is communicating with his or her defense lawyer, they must destroy any information recorded and not use it in any way.     Act on Courts and Judges (Law no. 6/2002) 30.     Under section 174a(1) of the Act on Court and Judges, if a party to proceedings considers that there are undue delays in carrying out a specific procedural step, he or she can ask the court to set a deadline.     Constitutional Court Act (Law no. 182/1993) 31 .     Section 28 of the Constitutional Court Act provides that secondary parties and interveners ( vedlejší účastníci ) have equal rights and duties with the parties to the proceedings. Under section 32, parties, secondary parties and interveners are entitled to respond to an application for the commencement of proceedings, to make submissions to the Constitutional Court, to examine the case file (except for the voting record), to make notes and copies, to attend any oral hearing of the case, to file evidence, and to be present when evidence is taken outside an oral hearing. Under section 72(1) (a), a natural or legal person may bring a   constitutional appeal where a breach of fundamental rights and basic freedoms guaranteed by the constitution is alleged to have arisen as a result of a final decision in proceedings to which the person was a party or as the result of a measure or of other interference by a public authority ("other interference"). Section 72(5) provides that, if no other procedural remedy is available to protect an appellant’s rights, a constitutional appeal may be lodged within two months of the date on which the appellant learnt of a public authority’s other interference with constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights or freedoms, but no later than one year from the date on which the interference occurred. Section 76(1), (2) and (3) provides that the parties to the constitutional appeal are the appellant and the State authority or other public authority against whose intervention the constitutional appeal is directed. The parties to the previous proceedings giving rise to the decision challenged in the appeal are secondary parties. The Constitutional Court may also grant intervener status to other persons who demonstrate a legal interest in the outcome of the proceedings.     State Liability Act (Law no. 82/1998) 32 .     Section 13(1) of the State Liability Act provides that the State is liable for damage caused by official misconduct. Under Section 31a(1) and (2), irrespective of whether damage has been caused by an unlawful decision or official misconduct, redress may also be given for non-pecuniary damage. If it is not possible to provide redress in any other way, and the mere finding of a violation is not sufficient, the compensation will be in monetary form.      DOMESTIC COURT PRACTICE 33 .     On 30 November 1995 in judgment no. III. ÚS 62/95 the Constitutional Court ordered the president of a criminal court to destroy all records of communications between the appellant and her defence lawyer. It observed that putting privileged material on the case file amounted to other interference by a public authority which breached the fundamental human rights not only of the appellant but also of her defence lawyer. The Constitutional Court further reiterated that a constitutional appeal is available against other interference of a public authority only if it does not arise from a decision and if no other effective remedies are available. 34 .     On 27 September 2007 in judgment no. II. ÚS 789/06 the Constitutional Court decided that where material has been unlawfully placed or retained on a case file the authorities must remove it, whether or not that removal is sought by a party to the proceedings. 35 .     On 17 May 2000 in decision no. II. ÚS 113/99 the Constitutional Court accepted a third-party intervention made at the invitation of the appellant and simultaneously declared the appeal inadmissible. The court did not send any of the parties’ observations to the other parties for comment. On 23 May 2013 in decision no. II. ÚS 825/11 the Constitutional Court communicated the observations of a would-be intervener to the appellant for comment before allowing the intervention, and then declared the application inadmissible in the same decision. On 15 June 2021 in a decision no. II. ÚS 2954/20 declaring a constitutional appeal inadmissible, the Constitutional Court permitted a third-party intervention and briefly summarised the intervener’s observations, which had earlier been provided to the appellant together with the other parties’ observations for comment. In separate procedural decisions (no. II. ÚS 1991/20 of 8 July 2021, no.   IV.   ÚS 2430/22 of 10 January 2023; no. IV. ÚS 662/23 of 30 May 2023; no. II. ÚS 2430/23 of 10 September 2024; no. Pl. ÚS 17/24 of 25   September   2024; and others) the Constitutional Court accepted third party interveners under Section 76 (3) of the Constitutional Court Act prior to deciding on the merits of the cases. 36 .     On 21 August 2021 in decision no. 30 Cdo 756/2021 the Supreme Court held that civil courts deciding compensation claims do not have jurisdiction to order the removal of unlawfully retained material from a   criminal case file, even as a form of redress for non-pecuniary damage. 37.     On 19 October 2023 in judgment no. 12 C 174/2019 the Prague 2 District Court awarded CZK 50,000 (approximately 2,000 euros) in compensation for non-pecuniary damage to a defence lawyer whose communications with his client had been intercepted by the police and put in the criminal file. The Prague Municipal Court in its appeal judgment no.   11   Co 27/2024-228 of 20 March 2024 partially reversed that judgment, reducing the amount awarded to the lawyer to CZK 10,000 (approximately   400   euros). THE LAW         JOINDER OF THE APPLICATIONS 38.     Having regard to the similar subject matter of the applications and the fact that the applicants were joint parties in the domestic proceedings, the Court finds it appropriate to examine the applications jointly in a single judgment.      ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 8 OF THE CONVENTION 39 .     The applicants complained that putting their privileged correspondence with their client in the court’s criminal case file violated their right to respect for their private life and correspondence as protected by Article 8 of the Convention. That provision reads as follows: “1.     Everyone has the right to respect for his private ... life ... and his correspondence. 2.     There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.”     Admissibility    The parties’ submissions    The Government   Exhaustion of domestic remedies 40 .     The Government submitted that the applicants had not exhausted the available and effective domestic remedies. Firstly, an adequate compensatory remedy had been available under the State Liability Act and the applicants had pursued it. The District Court judgment effectively acknowledged the violation of their rights, even if it did not award them the amount of compensation they had asked for. The applicants had failed to lodge an appeal against that judgment and had failed to seek any further domestic remedy against the subsequent appellate court judgment awarding only three of them an apology, thereby depriving themselves of the opportunity to seek appropriate compensation for the alleged pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage. 41 .     Secondly, the Government argued that the applicants could have sought to have the privileged communications with their client removed from the Brno Municipal Court criminal case file once the final judgment of the Prague Municipal Court had confirmed in the compensation proceedings that the Brno Municipal court’s conduct had been unlawful (see paragraph 26 above). In the Government’s view, the applicants should have relied, by analogy, on Article 88(1) of the CCP, which requires a police authority to destroy an intercepted communication on discovering that it was a communication between an accused person and his or her defence lawyer. They added that the Constitutional Court had held that the requirement to remove such material from a case file had also applied to a criminal court whether or not an application for it had been made (see paragraph 33 above). Victim status and existence of significant disadvantage 42.     The Government further argued that the second, third and fourth applicants had lost their victim status within the meaning of Article 34 of the Convention because the domestic courts had acknowledged the violation of their rights. Those applicants had also received an appropriate form of redress by means of a written apology (see paragraph 27 above). In the Government’s view, their failure to appeal against the decision awarding some of them an apology indicated that they had considered it to be a sufficient remedy. 43.     Furthermore, the Government submitted that neither of the applicants had suffered significant disadvantage. The domestic courts had acknowledged in the compensation proceedings that the material had been put on the criminal case file in error. The material had not been relied on in the criminal proceedings and had not appeared in the public domain. Only a   small group of persons had had access to the criminal case file and all of those persons had been bound by a statutory duty of confidentiality. The Government maintained that the case had been heard by the domestic courts and there was nothing to suggest that respect for human rights required an assessment of the case by the Court.    The applicants   Exhaustion of domestic remedies 44 .     The applicants disagreed that they had had at their disposal an adequate and effective remedy that would have resulted in the removal of the privileged material from the criminal case file. They argued that the Constitutional Court’s decision in their case (see paragraph 22 above) implied that they did not have standing to seek the removal of confidential communications from the case file even if Article 88(1) of the CCP could be applied by analogy, which was disputable. They reiterated that the Government had not shown that that remedy was effective in practice. 45 .     The applicants further maintained that an action for compensation under the State Liability Act was not an effective remedy because it could not lead to the removal of the privileged material from the case file, where it still was. Victim status and existence of significant disadvantage 46.     The applicants submitted that for the purposes of Article 8 and for the assessment of the disadvantage suffered it was irrelevant whether the criminal court had relied on the privileged material in the criminal proceedings. They reiterated that the case file had been distributed to all the co ‑ accused and had remained accessible to many persons at the Brno Municipal Court. The applicants maintained that they did have the status of victims and that they had suffered significant disadvantage.    The Court’s assessment    Exhaustion of domestic remedies 47 .     The Court notes that the interference complained about consisted of applicants’ communications with their client and various notes and documents protected by legal professional privilege being put in the criminal court case file, which made the content of those communications accessible to the other parties to the proceedings. The Court has previously held that an effective remedy against an interference of that nature must be capable of reviewing the legality of the conduct and leading to the removal of the privileged material from the case file or its destruction, should the conduct be found unlawful ( see Pruteanu v. Romania , no. 30181/05, §§   55-56, 3   February 2015, and, mutatis mutandis , Segerstedt-Wiberg and Others v.   Sweden , no. 62332/00, § 121, ECHR 2006-VII, with further references). 48.     The Court observes that it is not in dispute between the parties that the domestic law did not allow civil courts dealing with compensation proceedings to order the removal or destruction of material from criminal case files (see paragraph 36 above). It follows that an action seeking compensation would not have been an adequate remedy in the present case, even though the applicants did not fully exhaust it (see paragraph 26 above). 49 .     The Government further argued that the applicants should have applied to the Brno Municipal Court relying on Article 88(1) of the CCP by analogy for an order for the privileged material to be removed from the case file after they had obtained the civil court’s judgment finding that it had been unlawful to put it there (see paragraphs 25-26 above). 50 .     However, the Court observes that the Municipal Court clearly disagreed that Article 88(1) of the CCP could be applied by analogy in the present case. That is apparent from its multiple rejections of requests by the applicants’ client Z. and his defence lawyers for the removal of the privileged material from the court case file (see paragraphs 10, 12-13 above), from the presiding judge’s public statement (see paragraph 11 above) and from that court’s observations in the Constitutional Court proceedings (see paragraph 19 above). The Court further notes that the Brno Regional Court (see paragraph 17 above) and the Ministry of Justice (see paragraph 14 above) agreed with the conclusion that the provision could not be applied by analogy. That legal position can also be inferred from the Constitutional Court’s decision in the applicants’ case. 51 .     The Court is therefore not convinced that the applicants could have reasonably expected that an application based on a judgment of a civil court, which was not a superior court, would be capable of changing the Municipal Court’s consistent position and persuading it remove the privileged material from the case file. Furthermore, the Court observes that if the Municipal Court had accepted the civil court’s position that the material had been placed in the file unlawfully, it could and should have removed it from the criminal file of its own motion, irrespective of the applicants’ request (see paragraphs   33-34 above). 52.     Lastly, the Court notes that the Constitutional Court’s review of the applicants’ complaint as “other interference” pursuant to Section 72(1)(a) implies that the Constitutional Court accepted that there was no other effective domestic remedy available against that interference (see paragraph   33 above). The Court considers that it would be unduly formalistic to require the applicants to exercise a remedy which even the highest court of the country concerned had not required them to use ( see D.H. and Others v.   the Czech Republic [GC], no. 57325/00, § 118, ECHR 2007-IV). 53.     The Court therefore rejects the Government’s preliminary objection of the applicants’ failure to exhaust domestic remedies.    Victim status and existence of significant disadvantage 54.     In response to the Government’s objection that the second, third and fourth applicants had lost their victim status by virtue of the acknowledgement by the domestic court that the interference with their rights had been unlawful, the Court observes that the civil court’s judgment did not lead to the removal of the applicants’ privileged material from the case file. The Court finds that the mere acknowledgment of the violation by the civil court did not deprive the applicants of their victim status within the meaning of Article 34 of the Convention. 55.     Lastly, the Court cannot accept the Government’s argument that the applicants had not suffered a significant disadvantage. By putting privileged material in the court case file, the Municipal Court had effectively made the applicants’ communication with their client, including their defence strategy and various documents and draft submissions, available to the prosecutor and a number of co-defendants whose interests in the proceedings were potentially adverse to their client’s. Even if those documents were not used as evidence in the trial, making them accessible to the other parties compromised the relationship of trust and confidentiality of communications between the applicants, as defence lawyers, and their client. 56.     The Court observes that lawyers are assigned a fundamental role in a   democratic society which they cannot carry out if they are unable to guarantee to those they are defending that their exchanges will remain confidential (see Michaud v. France , no.   12323/11 , § 118, ECHR 2012). The Court finds that the mere action of putting the privileged material on the court file may have considerably prejudiced the applicants. It therefore rejects the Government’s preliminary objection of a lack of a significant disadvantage.    Conclusion on admissibility 57 .     The Court considers that this complaint is neither manifestly ill ‑ founded nor inadmissible on any other grounds. It must therefore be declared admissible.     Merits    The parties’ submissions 58.     The applicants complained that putting the various privileged communications with their client, taken from that client’s seized electronic devices, on the court case file violated their right to respect for their private life and correspondence. They further complained that the Czech legal framework did not contain sufficient guarantees of respect for the privacy of communications protected by legal professional privilege in cases concerning the examination of data from seized electronic devices. 59.     The Government conceded that the domestic courts had acknowledged the violation of the applicants’ rights at the domestic level and did not submit further arguments.    The Court’s assessment    Existence of an interference 60.     The Court observes that it was not in dispute between the parties that the data extracted from the applicants’ client’s devices and placed on the court case file contained privileged communications between the applicants and their client. The Court reiterates that such exchanges enjoy specific protection under Article 8 of the Convention ( see, among others, Michaud v. France , no.   12323/11 , §   118, ECHR 2012; Saber v. Norway , no. 459/18, § 51, 17   December 2020; and Vasil Vasilev v. Bulgaria , no. 7610/15, § 89, 16   November 2021). 61.     The Court has previously held, in a case where the client’s own line was tapped, that monitoring and recording of a conversation between a lawyer and his or her client constitutes a serious interference with the rights to respect for “privacy” and “correspondence” protected under Article 8 (see Vasil Vasilev , cited above, §§ 84 and 89, and Kopp v. Switzerland , 25 March 1998, §§ 50 and 72, Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1998-II). Examination of communications between a client and his or her lawyer found on that lawyer’s electronic device has equally been considered to be an interference with the right to respect for “correspondence” ( see Särgava v. Estonia , no. 698/19, §   85, 16 November 2021; Bersheda and Rybolovlev v. Monaco , nos.   36559/19 and 36570/19, § 84, 6 June 2024 ; and Saber, cited above, §   48). 62.     The Court observes that in the present case, it was the client’s electronic devices from which the privileged data including his communications with the applicants had been extracted. Nevertheless, the Court considers that the applicants did not waive their rights to privacy and protection of correspondence simply because there was a hypothetical possibility that the data they sent to their client’s device could be forwarded to others or obtained by the authorities. Rather, they had a reasonable expectation that the privacy of their communications would still be respected and protected (see, mutatis mutandis , Macharik v. the Czech Republic , no.   51409/19, § 34, 13   February 2025;   Bărbulescu v.   Romania   [GC], no.   61496/08 , §   73, ECHR   2017; and   Benedik v.   Slovenia , no.   62357/14 , §   101, 24 April 2018). Indeed, the specific protection guaranteed to lawyer-client communications would be devoid of meaning if it did not extend to electronic communications stored on either the lawyer’s or the client’s devices. 63.     The Court further observes that the Government did not object to the present case as an interference with the applicants’ rights.   The Court is therefore satisfied that putting in the court case file the applicants’ privileged communications with their client, which had been seized from that client’s electronic devices, had interfered with the applicants’ rights to respect for their private life and correspondence, as protected by the first paragraph of Article 8 of the Convention .    Justification for the interference 64.     An interference contravenes Article 8 of the Convention unless it is “in accordance with the law”, pursues one or more of the legitimate aims referred to in its second paragraph and is “necessary in a democratic society” to achieve those aims. 65 .     The Court reiterates that it is primarily for the national authorities, notably the courts, to interpret and apply domestic law. In this context, the Court observes that in the compensation proceedings brought by the applicants the domestic courts acknowledged the unlawfulness of the interference. They reached that conclusion despite their inability to identify a   clear statutory provision prohibiting the inspection of privileged data stored on seized electronic devices. Instead, they relied on general principles protecting legal professional privilege and, by analogy, on Article 88(1) and Article 158d of the CCP, which prohibit monitoring and recording of such data in other contexts (see paragraphs 25-26 above). 66 .     Nevertheless, the Court notes that in other proceedings the domestic courts reached the opposite conclusion. In the proceedings concerning the requests for removal of the material f