Rougier J said: ‘It must, surely, be up to the solicitor to take the appropriate steps to clarify precisely the extent of his retainer, and this, sadly, Mr Lightfoot failed to do when, in my judgment, the circumstances demanded that he should. This view is, if not analogous, at least consonant, so it seems to me, with that line of cases such as Crossley v Crowther (1851) 9 Hare 384, and Re Payne (1912) 28 T.L.R. 201, to the effect that, where there is a dispute between solicitor and client as to the terms of any retainer, prima facie it is the client’s version which should prevail. It seems to me that the underlying basis for this principle must be that it is the client who actually knows what he wants the solicitor to do, and so it is the solicitor’s business to ascertain the client’s wishes accurately, bearing in mind the possibility that the client, through ignorance of the correct terminology, may not have correctly expressed it’.
Judges:
Rougier J
Citations:
[1999] PNLR 882
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Sibley and Co v Reachbyte Ltd and Another ChD 4-Nov-2008
Solicitors appealed against a costs order made refusing them payment of all of Leading and Junior counsel’s fees.
Held: The leading counsel involved had not provided anything like a detailed account of the time he had spent on what was a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Professional Negligence, Legal Professions
Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.278316