Competence

The Supreme Court has overturned a Court of Appeal ruling that a negligent law firm should have to compensate its former client for failing to make a claim.

Solicitors at smaller firms believe that clients’ focus on price is compromising their work and even their ability to uphold the law, a survey has suggested.

A top family law firm has been criticised by a High Court judge for exacerbating the conflict in a high-value divorce by issuing a Form A during a period when it had been agreed not to.

The Law Society is dramatically beefing up oversight of its Conveyancing Quality Scheme by introducing onsite compliance checks and many more desk-based assessments.

Conveyancers acting for buyers should “think” rather than “automatically try to export the risk of identity fraud onto the seller’s conveyancer”, a specialist barrister has warned.

Solicitors do not have to carry out investigative tasks in areas they have not been asked to deal with, however beneficial to the client it might have turned out to be.

A claim that Leigh Day was negligent in its representation of the family of the deceased at an inquest has been dismissed by the High Court.

People buying holiday home became clients of a law firm after agreeing to visit its offices to complete their purchases, making it liable for negligence, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

Conveyancers are facing higher professional indemnity insurance costs – and their clients higher fees as a result – due to yesterday’s Court of Appeal ruling in Dreamvar, experts have predicted. One said the judgment “will provide greater protection to buyers, but will shake up the conveyancing industry with much greater risk of liability”.

“Very real obstacles” faced by a family law client in bringing a negligence action against a Cheshire law firm did not mean that the claim should be struck out in its entirety, the High Court has ruled. The claimant argued that, but for the firm’s negligence, he would have had to pay a third of the lump sum ordered by a district judge on his divorce.

Solicitors acting for the buyer of a property purportedly ‘sold’ by an imposter were liable for the losses suffered by their client, the Court of Appeal has ruled by a majority in the long-awaited decision in Dreamvar However, the court also found that seller’s solicitors liable, meaning that the other solicitors could sue them for a contribution.

Training law students in emotional competency, and a change in culture, led from the top, in law firms and chambers are among the shifts needed to combat the growing problem of stress in the legal profession, according to a roundtable held in the run-up to Mental Health Awareness Week, which begins today.

A criminal silk was not to blame for a man being convicted of importing and supplying large quantities of heroin, the Court of Appeal has decided. Attique Sami argued that “no competent counsel” would have called a witness who gave “highly damaging evidence” against him involving 230kg of heroin with a street value of over £37m.

A London-based law firm has filed a claim for judicial review against the Law Society’s decision not to reaccredit a solicitor who had been on its mental health panel for nearly a decade. She said the decision meant she has had to stop working in an area about which she is “passionate”, and longstanding clients have had to find new representation.

A law firm with offices in Italy and England has reached the end of the line in challenging a ruling that it was under a duty to warn British and Irish property investors of the risks of investing in a part of Italy associated with organised crime. The Court of Appeal upheld the decision and the Supreme Court has now refused to hear a second appeal.