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Hilton v Barker Booth and Eastwood, 2005 UKHL 8

Hilton v Barker Booth and Eastwood, 2005 UKHL 8


Citation:Hilton v Barker Booth and Eastwood, 2005 UKHL 8

Link to case on WorldLII.

Rule of thumb:Is it lawyer negligence for facts about their client’s credibility to be revealed to the other side? Yes, even if the facts about this are in the public domain, it is negligence for this to be revealed.

Judgment:

A solicitor should never disclose any facts he knows about a principal that could discredit his principal in any way. Where a solicitor represents 2 people with a conflict of interest then the solicitor owes the one who was not wholly represented to the best possible extent is entitled to damages. A solicitor must never represent 2 clients where there is a potential conflict of interest.

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Ratio-decidendi:

‘It is a solicitor’s duty to act in his client’s best interest... To disclose discreditable facts about a client, and to do so without the client’s informed consent is likely to be a breach of duty, even if the facts are in the public domain... If a solicitor put himself in a position of having two irreconcilable duties, it was his own fault... As a general rule, a solicitor who had 2 conflicting duties to two clients could not prefer one to the other. He therefore had to perform both as best he could. That might involve performing one duty to the letter of the obligation, and paying compensation for his failure to perform the other. In any case, however, the fact that he had chosen to put himself in an impossible position did not exonerate him from liability’, Lord Walker at 34 and 41

Warning: This is not professional legal advice. This is not professional legal education advice. Please obtain professional guidance before embarking on any legal course of action. This is just an interpretation of a Judgment by persons of legal insight & varying levels of legal specialism, experience & expertise. Please read the Judgment yourself and form your own interpretation of it with professional assistance.