April 2008

DELAYED LITIGATION - THE COURT OF APPEAL CONSIDERS SCOPE OF DUTY, CAUSATION, LOSS; AND EXISTENCE OF DUTIES OF CARE OUTSIDE OF ANY RETAINER

A review of the Court of Appeal's judgement in Hibbert Pownall Newton ("HPN") v Whitehead & McLeish, which was handed down on 4 April 2008. Davies Arnold Cooper acted for the solicitors, HPN. 

This was a factually-complex solicitors’ negligence claim in which the decision at first instance to hold the solicitors responsible for a curtailment of losses in a claim caused by the client’s suicide, may have jarred with the insurance community. It has now been overturned and the claimant also failed to overturn a separate finding regarding the non-existence of a separate duty of care.