Today's judgment by the House of Lords reinstating time limits on cases brought against professional firms has been welcomed by law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC).
According to RPC, the House of Lords' overruling of the Court of Appeal decision in Cave v Robinson will prevent a dramatic increase in legal cases against professional service firms.
The unanimous decision is thought unlikely to go to the European Court of Appeal.
Cave v Robinson had effectively lifted the time bar on professional negligence claims and was seen as unfairly skewing the legal system against professional firms.
RPC solicitor Nick Bird commented: "For professional firms, their insurers and their regulators the House of Lords ruling comes as an enormous relief. Cave v Robinson confronted them with the prospect of a host of legal claims rising from the dead."
"Before this decision there was every expectation that large corporate users of professionals would go back to their files to re-open claims which, because of the law of limitation, had previously been considered buried."
"The courts had started to interpret the Limitation Act in a way that was never intended and that would have placed a crushing financial and administrative burden on professional services firms in the UK."
