Court of Appeal—professional negligence

ARCHIVED: This Practice Note has been archived and is not maintained. The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal in a solicitors' negligence case on the ground that the loss of chance element of the damages claim was too remote.

The trial judge found that Lewis Silkin LLP had breached their duty in failing to advise their client about the inclusion of a jurisdiction clause in his contract of employment with a franchisee of the Indian Premier League's Twenty20 series. The absence of a jurisdiction clause meant that in his subsequent litigation with the franchisee as to a severance payment, the client was subjected to (albeit ultimately unsuccessful) jurisdiction challenges by the franchisee, which delayed his ultimately obtaining judgment for the severance pay of £10 million.

The client pleaded that had Lewis Silkin advised on jurisdiction then an exclusive jurisdiction clause would have been included in the employment contract. Had that been so, then the client would have obtained judgment for the severance payment earlier than he did (because there would