Supreme Court Backs Solicitor In Careless Misrepresentation Case

Insurance briefing is a round-up of legal and business developments published on Out-Law.com.

A Glasgow solicitor who made an incorrect statement about her client's affairs in an email to a lender is not liable for any loss suffered by the lender, the UK's highest court has ruled.

In a unanimous judgment, the Supreme Court found that Jane Steel owed no duty of care to the lender, the former Northern Rock (Asset Management) Plc (Northern Rock). The court overturned an earlier judgment by the Inner House and restored the earlier judgment of the Lord Ordinary, finding it was not reasonable for Northern Rock to have relied on Steel's emails without carrying out its own checks.

The Supreme Court's judgement "reaffirmed the long-held view that liability should generally only attach in such cases where there has been an assumption of responsibility", according to commercial litigation expert  Jacqueline Harris of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com.