Old advice

The Law Society Council was ill-served by its executive committee in the debate which took place on 15 June on the vexed question of whether a practice rule should be introduced to prohibit solicitor principals suing staff.

The paper which was produced to council by the committee advised that an opinion obtained from a QC had 'overcome previous doubts as to the legal position'.

It 'opens the door for Council, if it wishes, to make a rule preventing firms suing their employees for negligence'.Copies of the opinion and instructions were not supplied with the paper, but would be 'available on request'.

I managed to get my copy one day before the Council meeting, but somewhat daunted by the 47 pages, and with other work to do, I had only time for a quick scan.

At least that did show me that the statement in the Council paper was misleading in that counsel's advice was full of doubts and caveats.

What I missed was that the advice was actually 15 months old and the instructions were drawn up 18 months ago.

Does this matter? I certainly think so, and it is even worse in this case.

At the time counsel gave the opinion the present indemnity rules, and an open-market situation hadn't even been conceived of.

And then, of course, there is the little matter of the Human Rights Act.

Counsel does mention this even, in those far-off days when he was writing.

And what does he say? 'Consideration should be given to the imminent coming into force of the Human Rights Act.

There can be little doubt that the practice rule suggested would be a likely candidate for close scrutiny under article 6.' He goes on: 'This is a difficult and fast-changing area of law; the best answers I can give...'Hardly anyone on Council knew of these matters when the decision to vote in principle for a practice rule was made.

That cannot be right and proper.

No one advocates the practice of suing staff, but we do not want to end up with a practice rule which is not only unworkable but also illegal.

It is my firm view that the matter should be reconsidered by Council with full, complete and up-to-date information and advice.

Denis Cameron, Law Society Council member, Central Lancashire and Northern Greater Manchester