‘A solicitor is guilty of inordinate and inexcusable delay in prosecuting his client’s claim for damages for breach of a commercial contract. Over a period of years there is speculation from time to time about the defendant company’s being in financial difficulties but at other times having overcome them. Long after the trial of the action should have been concluded, a receiver is appointed to the defendant. Nonetheless the plaintiff proceeds to trial. The defendant plays no part in it. After consideration of the written material, damages totalling pounds x are awarded under different heads of claim. The judgment proves to be worthless because the defendant company is insolvent. The plaintiff recovers nothing. So he sues his solicitor claiming damages for his professional negligence. These questions then arise:
1. Is the loss caused by the solicitor’s negligence or by the company’s insolvency? That in turn may lead one to ask what the precise scope of the solicitor’s duty is .
2. The client’s loss being the loss of a chance, how are the chances of establishing liability, quantum and enforcement of the judgment to be assessed – broadly or in as fine a detail as possible?’
[1999] EWCA Civ 3032, [2000] PNLR 110, [2000] Lloyd’s Rep PN 151
Bailii
England and Wales
Professional Negligence
Updated: 28 December 2021; Ref: scu.346271