Solicitor’s duty of care claim against the Law Society

In dismissing a claim, alleging breach of a private law duty of care by the Law Society arising from the conduct of an investigation by an accountant appointed to examine the solicitor’s books, Mr Geoffrey Vos QC said that the solicitor was confined to statutory rights of appeal to the High Court. The accountant’s investigations were part of the disciplinary process as laid down by the 1974 Act and therefore a private law action could not intrude into this public field.