82,891
edits
Reliance on legal advice: Difference between revisions
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
no edit summary
Amwelladmin (talk | contribs) No edit summary Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit |
Amwelladmin (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{a|negotiation|{{image|mithril 2|jpg|A thousand pounds an hour, did you say?}}}}You may see this sort of clause, especially in a [[custody]] or [[agency]] agreement: | {{a|negotiation|{{image|mithril 2|jpg|A thousand pounds an hour, did you say?}}}}You may see this sort of clause, especially in a [[custody]] or [[agency]] agreement: | ||
{{quote| | |||
'''Agent May Consult with Counsel'''<br> | |||
The Agent may from time to time obtain 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''.}} | |||
Have no truck with this nonsense. | You may hear the agent’s legal advisers sagely intoning that, yes, this is absolutely standard market practice and non-negotiable, being a simple and effective allocation of risk by a service provider who gets paid a pittance and otherwise does not benefits from the fruits of the transaction. | ||
Have no truck with this nonsense. ''Especially'' not from 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 | 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. | ||
No one is stopping the agent ''relying'' on whatever advice it gets. That’s an [[agent]]’s prerogative. That it ''did'' get advice may even be (weak) evidence that it diligently discharged its duty and wasn’t, factually, at fault. | |||
But if the advice is ''wrong'' that’s the agent’s problem, not ''yours''. The answer is ''not'' for the agent [[Disclaimer|disclaim]] its liability to you: ''it is for the agent to sue its lawyer''. 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 sorry arse if their advice turns out to be wrong and their client — you, kind sir — goes on the warpath. | But if the advice is ''wrong'' that’s the agent’s problem, not ''yours''. The answer is ''not'' for the agent [[Disclaimer|disclaim]] its liability to you: ''it is for the agent to sue its lawyer''. 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 sorry arse if their advice turns out to be wrong and their client — you, kind sir — goes on the warpath. | ||