Hewetts’ Success at House of Lords

An Article by G A Kew Partner in charge of Litigation

Rarely do we have the privilege of taking a case to the House of Lords.

During the summer we acted for a client who successfully took her case to the House of Lords. In doing so she succeeded in an intricate area of insolvency law against one of the largest accountancy firms in the world. A true David and Goliath situation.

Our client had been battling for many years to obtain the right to sue her former accountants. Over recent years her whole life has been dedicated to rectifying the injustice caused by the accountants alleged failure to secure a Voluntary Arrangement at Court. We assisted her in the County Court, High Court, Court of Appeal and finally the House of Lords.

Both Nick Barnett and myself have been fortunate enough to see this case through from inception to its close and to represent a client, who has been courageous enough to battle on against heavy odds. This case was brought with the benefit of legal aid, without which it would have been impossible.

It is sad that public funding of cases is becoming increasingly harder to obtain and is likely in the not too distant future to disappear altogether. This case was a cry for justice, which cry was heard and duly answered by the House of Lords. Without public funding it would never have gone beyond the County Court, let alone the Court of Appeal.

A full report of this case can be found in the All England Law Reports: Mulkerrins v. PricewaterhouseCoopers (a firm) [2003] UKHL 41 For advice concerning any insolvency matter please contact either myself or my colleague Nick Barnett.

Published on 08/07/2008