Free Employment Advice - Foreseeability: Contract

M was convicted of serious criminal offences. His conviction was quashed and, on a retrial, he was acquitted. He claimed to have suffered psychiatric damage because of breach of contract and/or negligence by his solicitors in the preparation of his defence for the original trial. He sought damages from the solicitors. At first instance his claim was struck out on the basis that it was too remote in contract and not reasonably foreseeable in tort. M appealed to the Court of Appeal which allowed the appeal and made the following points:

• M had been convicted of a serious crime and sent to prison for four years when he was not guilty and when he had reasonable cause to believe that these misfortunes would not have arisen if his solicitors had handled his case with proper care.

• The case was one where the relationship between the parties was founded on contract.

• The solicitors’ lack of care included a failure to advertise for witnesses and a failure to give M information about the date of his trial.

• In deciding whether it was foreseeable that M would suffer psychiatric injury as a result of this lack of care, the judge should bear in mind the following matters:

(a) The requirement that compensation can only be recovered if the illness which results is a foreseeable result of the specific act or omission upon which the claimant relies.

(b) The requirement that damages can only be recovered if there is a sufficient degree of likelihood that the type of loss in question, namely psychiatric illness, will occur.

(c) The requirement that damages can only be recovered if it is foreseeable that psychiatric illness would have been suffered by the claimant, given all those features of his personal life and disposition of which the defendant was aware.

(d) The fact that the standard by which the defendants are to be judged is that of the ordinary reasonable man in the circumstances of the defendants, namely someone who is a solicitor practising criminal law and not someone who is a consultant psychiatrist.