Source: All England Reporter
Publisher Citation: [2007] All ER (D) 183 (Jul)
Neutral Citation: [2007] EWHC 1671 (Admin)
Court: Queen's Bench Division (Administrative Court)
Judge:

Lloyd Jones J
Representation Geriant Jones QC (instructed by the Direct Public Access Scheme) for the claimant.
  Justin Fenwick QC and Ben Elkington (instructed by Fishburns) for the defendants.
Judgment Dates: 12 July 2007

Catchwords

Limitation of action - Accrual of cause of action - Negligence - Counsel - Counsel acting in proceedings in 1995 - House of Lords deciding in 2000 that counsel no longer entitled to immunity from suit - Whether House of Lords' decision operating retrospectively - Whether cause of action against counsel accruing in 1995 or 2000.

The Case

Limitation of action Accrual of cause of action. The decision of the House of Lords in Arthur J S Hall & Co (a firm) v Simons; Barratt v Ansell and others (trading as Woolf Seddon (a firm)); Harris v Scholfield Roberts & Hill (a firm) and another proceeded on the basis that the change in the law should operate retroactively to the conduct which formed the subject of those proceedings; the defendants as advocates therefore did not enjoy immunity from suit in relation to criminal or civil proceedings in 1995. The court also held, per curiam, that even if the rule of advocates' immunity had subsisted in 1995 it would not have prevented the accrual of a cause of action and would not have prevented the running of time for the purposes of limitation.

Practice Areas

If you are a LexisLibrary subscriber you can read more about this case here.

Lexis®Library

  • An Official transcript is the final version of the judgment prepared by shorthand writers. LexisLibrary contains all judgments from the High Court and aboveView Judgment
  • Cases related to this particular case that are related to, or discuss this caseView related cases
  • The All England Law Reports comprises judgments with headnotes and catchwords indicating the area of law and key issues of the case prepared by legally qualified editorsFind AllER Reports
  • Commentary discussing this particular case from LexisLibrary's comprehensive range of titles including Butterworths, Halsbury's and TolleyView related commentary