Retainer is an entire contract

Richard Buxton (Solicitors) v Huw Llewellyn Paul Mills-Owens [2008] EWHC 1831 (QB) 28 July

This was a dramatic illustration of a solicitor’s retainer being an entire contract, which ended in tears for the solicitor. In a planning appeal, the client refused to accept the solicitor’s advice that he could not appeal on the merits but only on an error of law, and instructed the solicitor to proceed with the appeal. The solicitor refused and after advice from the Law Society he formally came off the record and terminated the retainer just days before the appeal. The client’s instructions contained no impropriety. If a client who is prepared to pay for a case to be advanced, and who wants the claim advanced on a particular basis that does not involve impropriety on the part of the solicitor or counsel, then it is no answer for the solicitor to say that he believes it is bound to fail and therefore he will not do it. Whatever one thought about the client’s stance, his instructions were firm and unequivocal as to how the case was to be presented and the solicitor ought to have followed them. The situation fell short of the line where the solicitor would have been entitled to terminate the retainer and the solicitors were not entitled to any fees for the work they had done.