Assistants seek protection

Practice Rule: YSG and Law Society stir debate on prohibiting firms from suing their staff

Young solicitors and the Law Society will this month begin a new push for a practice rule prohibiting law firms from suing their staff for negligence.The Young Solicitors Group is to host an open forum to discuss the topic on 31 January, while the Society's standards board will begin preliminary discussions on 15 January.It had seemed as though the rule would become a reality last year after one was approved by the Society's ruling council.

However, the ratification process faltered in June, when former President Martin Mears warned that it would be in breach of the Human Rights Act and the unfettered right to sue.Reynolds Porter Chamberlain solicitor Jill Greenfield, chairman of the London YSG and an executive committee member of the national group, said: 'We have been contacted with a number of horror stories concerning principals suing assistants and threats being made - it is not a pleasant situation at all.

It tends to happen mostly in the smaller, provincial firms where young solicitors are exploited by being overburdened and given work above their level of expertise.'Ms Greenfield said a number of solutions will be discussed at the forum, to be held at the Law Society in London, including the viability of a clause in lawyers' contracts preventing them from suing assistants, although she said this may also fall foul of the Human Rights Act.Edward Nally, chairman of the standards board, said: 'We must find a way of addressing the evil that meets with the approval of the Master of the Rolls and falls within the law.

The problem should be looked at in a lateral way - if we can't tackle it head on, we will have to look at other more roundabout ways of reaching the desired result.'He said that the board will conclude its deliberations and present them to the council by 20 March.

Andrew Towler