A person who engages solicitors to act for a third party (such as a parent retaining solicitors for a child) may have standing to sue the solicitors in their own right, both in contract (as a party to the retainer) and in tort (where the solicitor's performance was intended to confer a benefit on that person). The mere potentiality for a future conflict of interest between the engaging party and the third party does not prevent the solicitors from owing duties to both. Courts should approach strike-out applications against litigants in person with particular care to identify any viable cause of action that could be put into proper form with amendment.
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