The Government’s decision in early September not to introduce an amendment to the Companies (Audit Investigations and Community Enterprise) Bill to allow the capping of auditors’ liability – prohibited by s310 of the Companies Act 1985 – has put the issue of limitation of liability by professional firms back into the spotlight.
Accountants have been routinely limiting their liability in relation to non-audit work for some years but the position has been strikingly different so far as solicitors are concerned, perhaps because law firms have not seen many catastrophic claims of the kind faced by accountants during the past 30 years.
