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Who needs a lawyer, anyway? Limited retainers, financial remedies and drafting consent orders

Date:4 DEC 2015
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Barrister

Minkin v Landsberg [2015] EWCA Civ 1152

Drafting a consent order: How hard can it be?

  1. What is the extent of a solicitor’s duty to advise 'in circumstances where the parties [have] reached agreement and solicitors [are] being asked to put that agreement into proper form for approval by the court' (para [31])?
  2. Will a limited retainer – limited to drafting a Form E or to drawing up a consent order but not advising as to merits – protect a solicitor from a subsequent negligence claim?
  3. Is it the job of the court to re-draft consent orders handed up by unrepresented parties to ensure that every angle and future eventuality has been considered?
  4. Will a court 'rubber-stamp' an agreement?

In Minkin v Landsberg...

Read the full article here.