Professional Negligence News
A City law firm has reported a “dramatic jump” in the number of professional negligence claims brought against surveyors and estate agents.
According to Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC), there were 25 commercial and residential High Court cases against estate agents or surveyors in 2009, compared with just one case over the previous five years.
RPC partner, Alexandra Anderson, comments: “Losses of UK and Irish banks on loans in the UK property market run to the billions of pounds.”
She adds: “This has put a lot of pressure on banks and investors to pursue any option open to them to recover their losses, including launching a negligence claim against the surveyor who valued the collateral for the loan.”
The research reveals that the kinds of credit-crunch related professional negligence claims faced by surveyors and estate agents include claims that:
Boundary Disputes - Couple Set To Lose Everything
Couple set to lose everything after neighbour dispute over fence ends in crippling legal bills
Be careful when choosing your solicitor for a neighbour dispute! CompareTheSolicitor will find the best one for your needs.
A couple who pulled down their neighbours' fence during a bitter boundary dispute have ended up losing everything after taking the case all the way to the High Court. Mary Kendrick and John Edwards now face legal bills running into hundreds of thousands of pounds after losing their final appeal against paying the fees. The couple, who fought a five-year battle with neighbours Stephen and Barbara Evans, say they will now be forced to sell their house to pay the huge legal costs in the case. Lord Justice Dyson said he had 'huge sympathy' for the pair who live in Sale Moor, Greater Manchester, but could see no reason to overturn a previous ruling ordering them to pay court costs.
Prenuptial deals to be made official
The Daily Mail reports that American-style 'prenup agreements are to be made legally binding to stop the financial carnage' of bitter divorce battles. (A fact that CompareTheSolicitor.com has readily tackled sending our clients to only the moral, reasonable, ethical and professional divorce solicitors!)
The prenuptial contracts, in which a couple set the terms of their divorce before they marry, are not officially recognised in England and Wales, although they may be taken into account by a judge.
But the Law Commission is expected to propose making them legal amid fears that spiralling divorce payouts putting people off marriage.
It follows a string of high-profile expensive splits.
Professor Elizabeth Cooke from the Law Commission, said a number of possibilities were under consideration: 'One option will be to recognise the prenup and the postnup.
'If the current law is deterring marriage, that isn't good for public policy.
Acquisition of Halliwells
Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, HBJ Gateley Wareing and Hill Dickinson have completed their acquisition of failed firm Halliwells - as Reported by The Lawyer.
Following several weeks of negotiations Barlow Lyde & Gilbert has agreed to take on the Manchester-based insurance business, comprising a 17-partner team including insurance partner Kevin Finnigan and an additional 220 members of staff including 80 fee-earners. It has also hired two litigation partners in London, Helen Bourne and Damian McPhun, and their respective teams.
The firm, which already has one floor of office space at Chancery Place in Manchester, is assessing whether it will need to take on additional space at Halliwells’ Manchester headquarters at Spinningfields.
Divorce - Berezovsky's could cost £100m
Divorce - Boris Berezovsky's quickie divorce could cost him £100m - the biggest settlement in British history
23/07/10 - The Daily Mail reports that the wife of Boris Berezovsky won a 'quickie' divorce yesterday in what could be the biggest settlement in British legal history.
The divorce was granted in just 45 seconds because of his admitted unreasonable behaviour. Neither were at the brief hearing in the High Court Family Division when her petition was heard.
The Russian oligarch, 64, and second wife Galina, 51, were said to have spent only two years of their 18-year marriage actually together.
But it is thought she could be in line for £100million, despite his fortune - once estimated at more than £1billion - being built up after the couple had separated.
Such a payout will dwarf the £48million awarded to Beverley Charman in 2008.
