An English-qualified lawyer could be forgiven for treating Northern Ireland (NI) as an extension of the English legal jurisdiction. There are many similarities, and in a lot of cases NI statutes mirror those in England, save for some differences in numbering.
Would a client, however, be so forgiving if their English lawyer failed to take into account one of the major differences between the jurisdictions? Would you be prepared to take the risk of a professional indemnity claim rather than instruct an NI lawyer? It is not, as is so often mistakenly thought, simply a matter of cross-referencing English legislation to its equivalent in NI.
