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Box office smash: aggregation dismissed

29 July 2022 / Alexander Learmonth KC
Issue: 7989 / Categories: Features , Insurance / reinsurance , Charities
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Now that the dust has settled on Guide Dogs for the Blind v Box, Alexander Learmonth QC explains why it is good news for both consumers & solicitors
  • The Supreme Court has rejected the indemnity insurers’ appeal in Guide Dogs for the Blind v Box, after the Court of Appeal ruled that the insurers could not aggregate claims for compensation against a firm of solicitors following the theft of client funds over many years.
  • The decision confirms that insurers will not be able to limit their liability in circumstances where a solicitor has committed the same kind of infraction on a number of occasions.

Also known as Baines v Dixon Coles & Gill, last year’s Court of Appeal decision in Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and others v Box and others [2021] EWCA Civ 1211, [2022] 2 All ER 1032 generated considerable interest among solicitors generally, and the professional negligence and indemnity insurance community in particular. Now, the Supreme Court has dismissed the insurers’ application

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NEWS
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Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
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