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A Second Bite Of The Cherry?

Article Excerpt
In Taylor Walton v Laing (2007), covered in the Footnotes section of the last Lawyers' Liability briefing, the Court of Appeal struck out a solicitors' negligence claim on the grounds of abuse of process. The Court reached its conclusion on the basis that the negligence proceedings would be re-litigating the same issue considered by the court in the underlying dispute, and that all the arguments made by the claimant (including allegations of negligence against the solicitor) could have been made during the trial of that dispute or on appeal.

In reaching this conclusion, the Court of Appeal clarified that simply bringing proceedings against a solicitor for negligence which allege matters that are different from those decided in the underlying dispute is not enough to bring the administration of justice into disrepute. For example, allegations of negligence during the course of litigation against solicitors will normally involve an attempt by a claimant to demonstrate that the previous conclusion of the court would have been different, absent negligence.

Aldi Stores Ltd v WSP Group (2008) is another recent decision on abuse of process in the professional liability context, this time involving...

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