I said earlier - maybe in previous thread - that I thought AS had maybe seen or at least been told about the October legal advice. That certainly seems likely having seen it
this one is also interesting We're on 1st December here and they're again being advised to concede. What's interesting is they are saying they know their advise will not be welcome - to me (and having read some of the other docs) I get a sense there was probably a lot of in between discussion with much pushback from the SG about conceding.
"Since then there has been substantial further development of the pleadings, accompanied by disclosure of a volume of information about, among other things, the discussions that took place with Complainers A and B prior to them making formal complaints. The disclosure of information was necessary, as can be seen from Lord Pentland’s comments at the Procedural Hearing on 6 November 2018 regarding his expectations as to candour on the part of the respondents (although by then, of course, the need for candour had already been expressly recognised at consultation).
4 New grounds of challenge have been introduced by the petitioner based on the Investigating Officer’s (”IO”) prior contact with the complainers. In our view these are now the petitioner’s strongest grounds of challenge. Moreover, and with regret, we are now jointly of the view that those grounds are more likely than not to succeed. At the outset, we recognise the dismay that this advice will cause. However, we feel it necessary to tender this advice, and the reasons for it, given the views which we have, independently at first and now of consensus, taken in this regard.
further on
some case law preceeds this bit, then
"Nevertheless we think it is inevitable that the Court will accept that the petitioner had a legitimate expectation that the Procedure would be followed. The respondents have of course, with regard to other aspects of the petitioner’s challenges, relied on the precise terms of the Procedure. We cannot disavow the terms of paragraph 10. "