Maintenance of action

The claimants retained the defendant solicitors firm in relation to a land transfer transaction. The terms of the retainer were finalised on 5 August 2002. A dispute arose and the judge held that the retainer had not obliged the defendant to conduct litigation and it was therefore enforcible. The claimants appealed. On appeal, the Court of Appeal held that as the work that the defendant had carried out was work carried by them in their capacity as solicitors, the retainer had been (or at least become) an agreement within the definition of conditional fee agreement in s 58 (2) of the 1990 Act and the defendant was not entitled to enforce the retainer agreement.