UPDATE - Compensation Fund Limitation Period

Limitation Period in Claims Against Law Soc Compensation Fund
Law Society v Sephton & Co (a firm) and others [2006] UKHL 22
HL
10 May 2006
Daily Law Notes Report Summary
House of Lords Judgment  
A solicitor's misappropriation of funds from his client account
gave rise to the possibility of the Law Society being obliged to
pay a grant out of the Solicitors' Compensation Fund to his
defrauded clients. However, a contingent liability, such as the
possibility of an obligation to pay money in the future, was not
in itself damage until the contingency occurred and, consequently,
no cause of action in negligence against the solicitor's
accountants accrued, and time did not start to run for the
purposes of s 2 of the Limitation Act 1980, until a claim was
actually made against the compensation fund.

UPDATED 25TH MAY 2006

 More good stuff from LEGAL PRACTITIONER Consilio Magazine,
edited by Norman Baird and Mike Semple Piggot
Litigation Review
House of Lords :Law Society v Sephton & Co. (a firm) & Ors [2006] UKHL 22
"The date of damage in economic fraud." by Dr John Birchall
http://www.spr-consilio.com/art125.html
"To cut to the chase, the question, and the Lords' answer were as
follows, in over-simplified terms. Q. In an action for negligence,
an ingredient of that action is actual damage. Where negligence
has caused a contingent loss – i.e. the possibility of damage –
does the cause of action accrue when the contingent loss is
incurred, or only when the contingency, the possibility, becomes a
reality?   A. The cause of action accrues when the contingent loss
becomes a real loss, and not before."