The severity of claims against professionals continues to rise and it is hardly surprising that many try to limit their liability for negligence. Unhelpfully, there has been a dearth of case law in this area relating to solicitors. However, the recent decision in Marplace (Number 512) Limited v Chaffe Street [2006] sheds welcome light on the courts’ likely approach as far as they are concerned.
Solicitors have been reluctant to follow other professionals in limiting their liability, perhaps fearing that attempts to do so would make them seem uncompetitive or unprofessional. The 15th annual law firms survey 2006, published by PricewaterhouseCoopers in November last year, showed that more than one-third of the top 25 firms now routinely seek to limit their liability. Perhaps paradoxically, the survey reported that the larger the firm, the more frequently ‘client resistance’ was cited as being the reason for not seeking a limitation of liability.
