A Court of Queen's Bench justice has partially ruled in favour of Manitoba's police watchdog in what the agency's director calls a "first of its kind" decision, following a legal dispute over reports written by an RCMP officer charged with assault.

A decision delivered on Monday orders the Mounties to hand over an electronic report written by RCMP Const. Jeremiah Dumont-Fontaine on the night in 2019 when he allegedly assaulted Brian Halcrow outside a hotel bar in Thompson, Man.

"This is one of the first, if not the first [decision] of its kind in Manitoba that deals with defining what it is or is not a note," said Zane Tessler, the executive director of the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba.