Tom Bedford looks at the impact of Harcus Sinclair on solicitors’ undertakings
- Covers Harcus Sinclair and its impact on solicitors’ undertakings.
- Looks at problems and potential solutions to fact only individual solicitors and not incorporated bodies can give a binding undertaking.
Solicitors’ undertakings are rightly often a source of nervousness for practitioners. No solicitor would ever want to be in breach of an undertaking they have given, particularly if that undertaking binds them personally.
There are three main ways in which an undertaking can be enforced:
- through an action using the High Court’s inherent jurisdiction over solicitors;
- through civil proceedings for specific performance or compensation. This can be more difficult and costly; and
- by means of a report to the Solicitors Regulation Authority whose powers can be used to compel compliance with an undertaking, not by making an order to force compliance but through the use of sanctions.
It is the first of these enforcement routes, which is often the quickest and most effective way to secure compliance, that has been affected by a recent decision of the Supreme Court.
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