The Gazette 1967/71

tions should not be made in the printed text but should be incorporated in the appropriate sche dule at the end where there is ample room for amendments and additions. PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY INSURANCE An award of £25,000 to a victim of a road accident or a £100,000 property transaction are now so common, that it will merit only two or three paragraphs on the inside page of the daily papers. The significent aspect of such news for the solicitor is that the value of the claims and property with which he is dealing is constantly rising. At the same time the law increases in complexity and however careful the Solicitor may be there is no guarantee that once in his pro fessional career he will not make a mistake. While most Solicitors carry professional indemnity in surance in many cases the amount insured is woe fully inadequate. The amount up to which cover should be taken depends on the circumstances of the individual practice, but bearing in mind the high damages awarded every day in the High Court and the increase in value of property few practices can afford to be covered to less than £20,000. If you feel that you are covered sufficiently as to amount you might wish to adjust the scope of your cover. The following are some risks which the basic professional indemnity policy will not cover but which for an additional premium can be covered by an extension of the policy. (a) Libel and Slander In Groom v. Crocker (1938) 2 All E.R. 394, the plaintiff collided with a lorry belonging to X in such circumstances that X was clearly at fault. X lodged £100 in Court which the plaintiff accepted. The plaintiff's brother was a passenger in the car at the time and was injured and brought an action against his brother and X. The insurers agreed between themselves that the brother's claim and another claim should be shared bet ween themselves; to effect this it was necessary for the plaintiff's solicitor, Crocker, to admit that at the time the plaintiff was driving negligently and this he duly did. When the Plaintiff heard of this he sued his Solicitor for libel and was awarded £1,000 damages. It is possible that a Solicitor could incur serious liability in this way. Several forms of libel and slander cover are available. The extension is normally given for a percentage additional pre- 112

serious difficulty. He instanced several cases in which he had made pre-contract enquiries as to whether any such matters existed and which the answer revealed the existence of an easement that would have seriously frustrated the purchaser's intended development of the property. As a result the sale fell through. Tn another case the answer was that no such matters existed and the contract was signed on that understanding. It subsequently turned out that a right of way existed which was a serious obstacle to intended development. For tunately the matter was resolved after consider able difficulty. Counsel who settled the standard conditions commented that the standard condition about easements only protects the vendor from having to conduct inquiries as to the possible existence of easements of which he is not aware. In the case of those of which he is aware he must disclose them and furnish any information relating thereto in his possession. Here again, the condition, is of considerable antiquity. Member also referred to the clause in the standard conditions which says that the last receipt for rent shall be conclusive evidence of the performance of leasehold cone- nants affecting the property being sold and pointed out that the Conveyancing and Law or Property Act 1881 only makes the last receipt prima facie evidence. He thought that it would be more equitable that the standard conditions should follow the terms of the conveyancing acts. Counsel to whom the matter was referred poin ted out that the last receipt condition in the stan dard conditions has been in existence for at least one hundred years and is in universal use and that its validity has been judicially upheld. He pointed out that the conditions of sale are in tended to prevent the vendor from being put to unnecessary and possibly serious expense at the hands of a persistent or even vindictive purchaser and are primarily designed for sale by auction but equally necessary in the vast majority of moderate sized private sales. In large sales the purchaser will be in a position to refuse to accept any conditions which, in the circumstances, a solicitor advises him not to accept. He may of course lose the purchase but in such a case it becomes a matter of bargaining on each side. The main advantage to standard conditions is that their contents become universally known throughout the profession. Any variations in the printed form can be immediately detected and negotiated between the solicitors for the parties. For convenience it is suggested in the printed notes at the head of the conditions that altera­