The UK Supreme Court has significantly reformulated the scope of duty test that applies in cases of professional negligence. It handed down its decision in the case of Manchester Building Society v Grant Thornton UK LLP [2021] UKSC 20 on 18 June 2021. SPB acted for the successful party, Manchester Building Society.… Continue Reading
Earlier this month, the International Underwriting Association (“IUA“), the body representing underwriters in London that are separate from Lloyd’s, penned an open letter calling on the legal industry to allow insurers to cancel professional indemnity policies when lawyers fail to pay their premiums in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.… Continue Reading
Earlier this month, in Carillion Plc (in liquidation) (“Carillion“) v KPMG LLP & Anor (“KPMG“) [2020] EWHC 1416, the Commercial Court dismissed Carillion’s application for pre-action disclosure by KPMG. The Court confirmed that to obtain an order for pre-action disclosure in the Commercial Court, the circumstances must be outside the “usual run” and the case … Continue Reading
Yesterday, the Court finally gave judgement in Russell Adams v Options SIPP UK LLP, a significant test case on the potential liability of an execution only SIPP provider to an investor whose underlying investment in the SIPP had incurred significant losses. In a 99 page judgment, His Honour Judge Dight decided that the Defendant was … Continue Reading
The High Court has recently held in Rihan v Ernst and Young Global Ltd & Others [2020] EWHC 901 that four entities of the Ernst and Young global network (“EY“) were in breach of a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent a former EY partner, Mr Rihan, from suffering financial loss by reason of … Continue Reading
The Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) requires all regulated firms to take out and maintain professional indemnity insurance (“PII”) to cover the financial losses that may be suffered as a result of customer claims and complaints against the firm. The FCA also mandates limits of indemnity for the PII.… Continue Reading
Litigation surrounding film finance schemes continues to rumble on in the High Court. Earlier this month, the High Court in Barness v Ingenious Media Ltd [2019] EWHC 3299 (Ch) granted applications by two banks Coutts and Natwest (“Banks“) to strike out a number of lender claims in a case that is part of the “Ingenious litigation”.… Continue Reading
In Howard and another v Bank of Scotland plc [2019] a claim by borrowers alleging that their lender negligently overvalued their property, was struck out by the High Court last month, the Court deciding that the claim was time-barred under the Limitation Act 1980 (“Act”).… Continue Reading
On 1 November 2019, the Business Banking Resolution Service (“BBRS”) launched a new dispute resolution pilot in preparation for the introduction of its new service, which was originally announced in November 2018 by UK Finance, a trade body for British lenders. The service aims to provide alternative dispute resolution services for “larger” eligible small and … Continue Reading
Debbie Gupta, FCA Director of Life Insurance and Financial Advice Supervision, spoke at a conference last week about how financial advisers might improve the suitability of their advice to clients and at the same time reduce the risk of client complaints (or at least improve the chances of successfully defending them).… Continue Reading
The Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) has published a policy statement detailing that the Financial Ombudsman Service (“FOS”) compensation limit of £150,000 will increase to £350,000 from 1 April 2019. This follows a Consultation on the topic of the FOS award limit, which was open between October and December 2018. The new limit of £350,000 applies … Continue Reading
Earlier this month the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) updated its website with its plans to announce in Spring 2019 the next stage in its ongoing consultation on the introduction of a new duty of care for financial services firms (“New Duty”).… Continue Reading
In a move designed to (in their own words) ‘ensure more complainants receive fair compensation’ and to ‘build consumer trust in the integrity of the industry’, on 16 October 2018 the FCA published a Consultation Paper in which the regulator outlines proposals for increasing the Financial Ombudsman Service money award limit from £150,000 to £350,000 for … Continue Reading
The Court of Appeal decision in Mr Nobu Su v Clarksons Platou Futures Limited and another [2018] EWCA Civ 1115 from earlier this month concerns the interpretation and application of s14A of the Limitation Act 1980 (“s14A”) and when a claimant is deemed to have ‘knowledge’ of the negligence in order to extend the limitation … Continue Reading
Last month the Supreme Court decided, on an appeal from the Scottish Inner House of Court of Session, that a borrower’s solicitors did not assume responsibility for, and thereby owe a duty of care to, the other side (the financier) in a commercial transaction.… Continue Reading
The Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) has recently turned its attention to firms who may mis-sell contracts for difference (“CFDs”) to customers. The FCA says that it has a “serious concern” about the market. On 12 January 2018, following a 12 month review of the CFD market, the FCA issued an ominous warning in the form of a “Dear CEO” letter addressed … Continue Reading
AIG Europe Limited v Woodman and others [2017] UKSC 18 Supreme Court clarifies the correct interpretation of the aggregation clause contained in the Solicitors’ Minimum Terms and Conditions of Insurance (“MTC”) in what will be considered a partial victory for insurers.… Continue Reading
Introduction The recent High Court decision in American Leisure Group Limited v Olswang LLP demonstrates that if a Claimant issues proceedings on the eve of limitation but gets the Defendant’s name wrong, it runs a very serious risk (as here) of not being allowed to substitute the correct Defendant. Claimants and their lawyers beware. The … Continue Reading