Category: Insurance case law · Reviewed by Taylor Watts, Broker · New Business · Last reviewed June 2026
The House of Lords decision restricting the immunity of barristers and solicitor-advocates to work intimately connected with the conduct of a case in court, exposing pre-trial advisory work to liability in negligence.
The claimant, Mr Saif Ali, had been a passenger in a Bedford Dormobile van which collided with a Ford Cortina on a road in Birmingham in 1966. The Dormobile was driven by Mr Akram. The Cortina was driven by Mrs Sugden, with her husband, Mr Sugden, as a passenger. Mr Saif Ali sustained serious injuries.
Mr Saif Ali instructed the firm of solicitors Sydney Mitchell & Co, who in turn instructed a barrister, Mr Cyril Newman, to advise on the claim. The barrister advised that proceedings be brought against Mr Akram alone, and a writ was issued accordingly. He did not advise joining either Mrs Sugden or Mr Sugden, who insurance investigations had indicated might also have been at fault for the collision.
By the time the error became apparent, the three-year limitation period for personal injury claims against Mrs Sugden and Mr Sugden had expired. Mr Akram was uninsured and a man of straw. Mr Saif Ali was therefore left with a judgment he could not enforce and no surviving cause of action against potentially better-resourced defendants.
Mr Saif Ali sued the solicitors for negligence. The solicitors joined the barrister as a third party. The barrister relied on the immunity from suit which, under Rondel v Worsley [1969] 1 AC 191, protected barristers (and by extension solicitor-advocates) from negligence claims arising out of their conduct of litigation. The Court of Appeal held the barrister was protected by the immunity. Mr Saif Ali (and the solicitors as third-party claimants) appealed to the House of Lords.
The principal issue was the scope of the barristers’ immunity from suit in negligence recognised in Rondel v Worsley. Specifically, did the immunity cover pre-trial advisory work such as advising on the parties to be joined in a writ, or was it confined to work done in the actual conduct of a case in court and matters intimately connected with that conduct?
A secondary issue was the policy justification for any such immunity, given the wider availability of remedies against other professional advisers and the recognition in Hedley Byrne of liability for negligent advice.
The House of Lords, by a majority of three to two (Lords Wilberforce, Diplock and Salmon in the majority; Lords Russell and Keith dissenting), allowed the appeal and held that the barristers’ immunity did not extend to the pre-trial advice given in this case.
The majority confirmed that the immunity recognised in Rondel v Worsley survived but emphasised that it was a narrow exception to the general principle that professional people should answer for their negligence. The immunity was confined to work which was so intimately connected with the conduct of a case in court that it could fairly be said to be a preliminary decision affecting the way the cause would be conducted when it came to a hearing. Advice on which party or parties to join in a writ, given long before any hearing, did not fall within that protected core.
Lord Wilberforce held that the immunity must be jealously confined to its proper limits. Lord Diplock identified the test as whether the impugned act or omission was so intimately connected with the conduct of the case in court that it could fairly be said to be a preliminary decision affecting the way that cause was to be conducted. Lord Salmon agreed.
The decision did not abolish the immunity altogether but represented a substantial narrowing of it. The immunity was later abolished in its entirety by the House of Lords in Arthur JS Hall & Co v Simons [2002] 1 AC 615.
The immunity of a barrister or solicitor-advocate from suit in negligence is confined to work which is so intimately connected with the conduct of a case in court that it can fairly be regarded as a preliminary decision affecting the way that case will be conducted. Pre-trial advisory work which is not so connected is not within the immunity and is amenable to a claim in negligence in the ordinary way.
Saif Ali was a watershed for solicitors’ and barristers’ professional indemnity insurance. Before the decision, a substantial body of legal advisory work was thought to be insulated from claims by the Rondel immunity. After Saif Ali, only a narrow band of conduct closely connected with courtroom advocacy enjoyed protection, and after Arthur JS Hall v Simons even that immunity disappeared.
The practical consequences for PI placement were significant. The exposure of the solicitors’ and barristers’ professions widened considerably, with corresponding pressure on premiums and policy limits. Insurers responded with more granular underwriting questions about the type of work undertaken, particularly litigation and pre-trial advice, and with more developed reservation-of-rights and panel-defence arrangements.
For brokers placing legal PI cover today, Saif Ali is a reminder that the law on professional immunity is not static. Areas of practice once thought to be relatively low-risk on doctrinal grounds can be exposed by judicial development. Sound underwriting therefore depends on a current view of which areas of professional activity attract claims, not on assumptions inherited from earlier eras.
The case also illustrates the value of joining all potentially responsible parties at an early stage in litigation, a point that itself frequently founds PI claims against solicitors who fail to do so. Limitation control, defendant identification and joinder remain among the most common sources of solicitors’ negligence claims notified to PI insurers.
By Matt Bartlett, Director, on 2026-06-06. Next review: 2026-12-06.
This entry is part of the Apex Insurance Wiki. Last reviewed by Matt Bartlett on 2026-06-06. Apex Insurance Brokers Limited, FCA FRN 724952, Companies House 07014570. Not regulated advice — consult your broker on your specific position.
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