Misrepresenting the law
The courts should be quick to strike at legally inaccurate descriptions of particular transactions or relationships (for example calling a lease a licence), but, beyond that, we shall have to wait for the inevitable fine-tuning. Presumably, this will involve, inter alia, the degree of notoriety of the legal rule cited or disregarded by the representor, and the relative sophistication of the parties. The same questions will also go to any issue of negligence, whether contributory or otherwise.
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Misrepresenting the law
Q Can you bring or, as the case may be, defend, an action on the basis that you are a victim of a misrepresentation of law?
A As explained by John Murdoch in What’s the damage? Estates Gazette 29 March 2003, p113, it is clear that the representor can no longer hide behind old learning about everyone being deemed to know the law: see Pankhania v Hackney London Borough Council [2002] EWHC 2441 (Ch); [2002] PLSCS 262, applying, by analogy, the reasoning of the House of Lords in Kleinwort Benson Ltd v Lincoln City Council [1999] 2 AC 349.
The courts should be quick to strike at legally inaccurate descriptions of particular transactions or relationships (for example calling a lease a licence), but, beyond that, we shall have to wait for the inevitable fine-tuning. Presumably, this will involve, inter alia, the degree of notoriety of the legal rule cited or disregarded by the representor, and the relative sophistication of the parties. The same questions will also go to any issue of negligence, whether contributory or otherwise.
