Negligence

A claim in connection with the drafting of a sales agreement for the sale of land that was likely to be granted planning permission depended on expert evidence. The expert of one party indicated he was no longer prepared to continue and that was a good reason for the party not to proceed with him a......

The report of a Law Society investigation into a solicitors' practice following complaints from several client did not disclose errors or indications of bad faith on the part of the Law Society. There was no real prospect of successfully contending that there had been misfeasance in public office. ......

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......

We are pleased to welcome Anis Waiz, Partner at Mohindra Maini LLP as he continues his critical review of current case law. In this post, Anis considers AIB Group (UK) Plc v Mark Redler & Co (A Firm) [2012] EWHC 35 (Ch) (23 January 2012):- Introduction This is an important case for all......

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......

Duty of Care: A clinician was under a duty to take reasonable care to give a warning that was adequate in scope, content and presentation and to take reasonable and appropriate steps to satisfy themselves that that warning had been understood. This was not a duty to ensure the patient underst......

Before instructing solicitors, the Claimant issued two sets of proceedings. The first was a libel action based on a letter written in February 1998. The claim form was issued in December 2003. The second was a claim for negligent misstatement based on a letter written on 9 March 1998. He issued th......

Jury Awards/Judicial Awards/Negligence/Contributory Negligence/Damages/Section 1(4), Damages (Scotland) Act 1976The pursuers sought damages for the death of a family member caused by a road accident. They claimed that the defender's actions leading to the accident amounted to negligence. However, i......

Clinical Negligence. The Claimant was born with poor respiratory ability. Despite attempts by clinicians to establish a clear airway this was not achieved until a thick plug of mucus was removed from his trachea some 30 minutes after birth. The Claimant had begun to suffer severe and permanent br......

This appeal by the Law Society of Scotland under section 21 of the Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 2007 against a decision by the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, concerned whether a complaint made against Mr Alastair Dean, solicitor, of the Alastair Dean Law Practice Ltd was ......

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......

The court summarized the principles for determining whether a lender had suffered any measurable loss following the entry into a transaction as a result of the alleged negligence of a third party.   See also this update from HULT Private Capital. ......

A claim against the party's former legal representatives in respect of an earlier professional negligence action was dismissed on a summary basis. Earlier attempts to appeal the original decision out of time had failed because they were out of time. The Claimants alleged that their barristers were ......

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. ......

A patent attorney had not given negligent advice to two inventors about an international application for their invention or about buying a US patent which their invention would infringe. ......

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......

Causation: A property acquisition fell through because conditions attached to the mortgage offer could not be met before the date for exchange leading to the loss of deposit and the refusal by the vendor to sell. Having accepted that a breach had arisen by not checking whether the mortgage conditio......

Correspondence was overlooked by the solicitor retained to advised the Claimant in respect of his rights and obligations under a consultant service agreement. The defence allegations that the consultant's employment would have been terminated in any event failed. The actions of the consultant h......

Financial Services: The principle in Chester v Afshar should not be applied generally in claims for negligent financial advice. ......

Duty of Care:The Claimant failed to show that his treating hospital was in breach of duty in failing to seek third party advice failed before employing an intravenous anti-fungal drug failed when there were conflicting medical views and no scientific comparisons of the possible treatments. ......