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Reliance on legal advice: Difference between revisions
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The Agent may from time to time seek and rely upon advice from professional advisers ''and will not be liable for any action taken or [[Act or omission|not taken]] in reliance upon that advice''.}} | The Agent may from time to time seek and rely upon advice from professional advisers ''and will not be liable for any action taken or [[Act or omission|not taken]] in reliance upon that advice''.}} | ||
This may strike you as cavalier. But should you protest, expect to hear the agent’s legal advisers sagely intoning that, yes, this is absolutely standard in the market and non-negotiable, being a simple and effective allocation of risk by a service provider who gets paid a pittance and otherwise does not share in the fruits of the transaction. | This may strike you as cavalier. But, should you protest, expect to hear the agent’s legal advisers sagely intoning that, yes, this is absolutely standard in the market and non-negotiable, being a simple and effective allocation of risk by a service provider who gets paid a pittance and otherwise does not share in the fruits of the transaction. | ||
Have no truck with this nonsense. ''Especially'' not from [[External counsel|external legal advisors]], who have a raging [[Conflicts of interest|conflict of interest]] in dispensing this sort of “market colour”. | Have no truck with this nonsense. ''Especially'' not from [[External counsel|external legal advisors]], who have a raging [[Conflicts of interest|conflict of interest]] in dispensing this sort of “market colour”. | ||
=== Bad advice is not the client’s problem=== | === Bad advice is not the client’s problem=== | ||
No one is stopping an agent getting whatever [[Legal advice|advice]] it wants, ''on its own dime and at its own risk''. It’s a free country. (Now, we say, “its own dime”: note, though, how common it is for an agent to ask | No-one is stopping an agent getting whatever [[Legal advice|advice]] it wants, ''on its own dime and at its own risk''. It’s a free country. (Now, we say, “its own dime”: note, though, how common it is for an agent to ask its customer to foot the bill: it gets paid a pittance, does not share in the fruits of the transaction, etc. etc.) | ||
And | And nor is anyone stopping the agent ''relying'' on the advice it gets. Again, free country: that’s an [[agent]]’s prerogative. That it ''did'' get advice may even be (weak) evidence that it diligently discharged its contractual duty and wasn’t, factually, at fault. ''Weak'' evidence. | ||
But, still, if the advice turns out to be ''wrong'', that should be the agent’s problem, not | But, still, if the advice turns out to be ''wrong'', that should be the agent’s problem, not the customer’s. | ||
The answer is ''not'' for the agent [[Disclaimer|disclaim]] its liability to | The answer is ''not'' for the agent [[Disclaimer|disclaim]] its liability to the customer: ''it is for the agent to sue its lawyers''. That’s what it paid the blighters for: so they, and that juicy [[professional indemnity insurance]] policy they never seem to claim on, can cover the agent’s blushes if their advice turns out to be wrong and their client’s customer goes on the warpath. | ||
===If fails the commercial imperative=== | ===If fails the commercial imperative=== | ||
In any case, agents: think about it from your customer’s point of view. | In any case, agents: think about it from your customer’s point of view. | ||
You buggered up and lost your customer money: if you now let your own ([[Q.E.D.]] [[negligent]]) [[Law firm|lawyer]]s off the hook, you throw your customer under a bus. | |||
Your customer will not see the funny side of this. It will not matter that the contract is clear: your customer will rightly say it had little choice: your lawyers — yes, they who shall not be sued —hotly insisted it was a market standard. It may withdraw its business. It may well grumble about you to other customers in the watering holes across the square mile. | Your customer will not see the funny side of this. It will not matter that the contract is clear: your customer will rightly say it had little choice: your lawyers — yes, they who shall not be sued —hotly insisted it was a market standard. It may withdraw its business. It may well grumble about you to other customers in the watering holes across the square mile. | ||