Advocate's immunity does not extend to a solicitor's conduct relating to the formation and continuation of a retainer, including misrepresentations about specialist expertise and delegation to unqualified persons, even where the claimed loss is measured by reference to the shortfall in a subsequent judgment. Pre-litigation preparation work under the PIPA regime has only a historical, not functional, connection with subsequent litigation and does not attract the immunity. However, a solicitor's failures in preparing a claim during the litigation stage, including failures to disclose their own negligence and advise the client to seek an adjournment, do attract advocate's immunity. A client's claim against their solicitor for loss caused by the solicitor's wrongful conduct is not a re-litigation abuse of process, even though it necessarily involves an inconsistency with the earlier judicial determination of quantum.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 9 later cases that cite this judgment.
2 of the 9 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.