Legal Profession

We welcome again Anis Waiz, solicitor and head of commercial litigation at Curtis Law Solicitors, as he continues his critical review of current case law. Readers may recall this case and will note the case summary 30th January 2012, available here. Whilst this judgment follows on from a num......

A judge had erred in finding that a firm of solicitors had committed a breach of trust in relation to part only of the remortgage advance that was released to the borrower rather than being used to discharge the first legal charge on the property. However the calculation of the equitable compensati......

The first applicant instructed a barrister on a direct access basis in the defence of a defamation claim. Dissatisfied with the services he disinstructed the barrister and instructed a solicitors firm to act who instructed another barrister. The applicant lodged a complaint about his first barriste......

An appeal on the grounds of causation was made following a case where the claimant failed to prove that the solicitor's negligence in providing appropriate planning advice had actually caused any loss. On appeal, an application to produce fresh evidence was dismissed as it was said that it woul......

A judgment reiterating the duties of advocates and lawyers, highlighting the importance of professional competence and the observance of the duty owed to the court to act in the interests of justice, particularly in the context of asylum and immigration cases: 'This is an area of the law where ......

A law firm's liability for failure to carry out property searches was limited to the cost of an application to remove a condition attached to a grant of planning permission since the success of that application had mitigated the purchaser's loss. ......

The claimant sought damages from a firm of solicitors for alleged negligent advice. It was alleged that the firm wrongly advised the claimant, who had settled claims for general damages and handicap on the labour market, to abandon a claim for services under a tariff based compensation scheme for t......

In a professional negligence action against solicitors relating to their handling of a personal injury case the question arose as to when the claimant's cause of action had accrued. It was held that it had accrued on the date that here underlying claim had been settled rather than the earlier d......

Anis Waiz, solicitor and head of commercial litigation at Curtis Law Solicitors, continues his critical review of current case law. In this case the High Court considered an important issue, namely where a represented party loses mental capacity in the course of proceedings, does such loss of c......

Relief from sanctions was granted where earlier notification would not have altered the defendant's position as regards any potential settlement. Failure to notify in time had no serious or significant adverse effect. ......

A solicitors' firm that released investment monies from its client account before establishing with certainty who the beneficiary was and acting only in accordance with the beneficiary's instructions was in breach of fiduciary duty as trustee on the basis of a form of resulting trust analog......

The Claimants retained a firm of solicitors to advise them as to a property redevelopment between 1998 and 2003. The project overran and incurred significant additional costs. The bank appointed receivers over the Claimant's hotel company's assets and then enforced personal guarantees again......

Solicitors had been in breach of duty in not advising a client not to complete a loan to an acquaintance on the security of shares without seeing a copy of the company's register of members and a share certificate recording ownership by the acquaintance of the shares. ......

This is an appeal by a firm of solicitors against damages ordered for professional negligence. It was claimed that the firm had acted negligently in the conduct of a dispute concerning restrictive covenants. It was held unanimously that the cost of injunction proceedings to enforce a cessation of t......

Solicitors were not in breach of duty in handling a counterclaim brought by their clients in not ensuring that the opponent had adequate professional indemnity insurance cover in place, in agreeing to a substitution of parties before trial and not warning that there were strong reasons to suppose t......

In a case concerning the unusual situation of counsel who had acted for the husband in financial proceedings in respect of his first wife and subsequently acted against the husband in financial proceedings with his second wife, the court allowed the second wife's appeal against the setting a......

Dispute concerning the amount of interest payable on a former partner's agreed share of the firm's assets. The pursuer submitted that an outgoing partner has an extra right to claim a higher rate of interest at common law. Held: There was no authority to support the proposition that an e......

In this post Anis Waiz, solicitor and head of commercial litigation at Curtis Law Solicitors, continues his critical review of current case law. This case raised an interesting issue as to whether the "Bowerman" duty to report to client lenders matters relevant to the valuation of the property (......

In a White v Jones [1995] UKHL 5 situation the question of how the testator would have acted but for the solicitor's negligence was to be determined on a percentage change basis rather than the balance of probabilities. ......

Biggart Baillie LLP (vicariously liable for the wrongful acts and omissions of its partner) was liable in damages to the victims of their client's deceit. In essence, the firm acted for their client, John McGregor Cameron (JMC), in security transactions in which JMC pretended to be a wealthy la......

The claimant had made a loan to a company which had been established as a SPV to develop property. The company failed to repay the money and a sale of the property purchased did not cover the costs of sale. A claim was made for fraudulent misrepresentation against the individual associate with the ......

An application for costs against solicitors of unsuccessful defendants following a finding that a funding agreement had been validity terminated, raising the issue of whether the solicitors were a party to the action, and if not, whether the court should exercise its discretion to make an order aga......

Solicitors representing the purchaser of a yacht under the Mediterranean Yacht Brokers Association memorandum of agreement had not been negligent in failing to obtain a personal guarantee of the yacht's condition from the seller's beneficial owner. ......

The court granted an application to strike out the professional negligence claim as the claimant had failed to comply with various directions, particularly in light of the of the overriding objective pursuant to CPR rule 1.1(2)(f), which highlights the importance of enforcing compliance with the ru......

A complaint was made against a law firm which the SRA investigated. The investigator discovered that the sole principal solicitor supervised the firm remotely from Pakistan due to immigration difficulties. The investigator spoke to the principal and indicated that a certificate of compliance would ......

A firm, Kerr Stirling LLP, brought an appeal under s. 21, Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 2007 against a decision of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) to investigate a complaint against it on the grounds of time bar and procedural fairness. The conduct complained of was ......

Appeal of, among other things, an order requiring a firm, who retained and used money received into their client account from the claimants to settle fees contrary to an assignment, to pay 75% of the claimants' costs. Held: There was no arguable basis for a challenge to the costs order. The ......

Solicitor and partner Mr Anis Waiz of Mohindra Maini LLP continues his critical review of current case law. This is a case of crucial importance to all lawyers and a valuable lesson in client care and dealing properly and in good fashion with the regulator. Below is an extract of a blog written by......

Judicial review challenging a decision of the Legal Services Board (LSB) to approve the introduction of the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA). The scheme was lawful, did not contravene European law and fell well within the legitimate exercise of the powers of the LSB and the three r......