Monday, September 12, 2011

Lord Hope of Craighead speech at official opening of Digby Brown Solcitor's Glasgow Office

 

This is a very happy occasion – and so, indeed, it should be.  Great credit is due to the firm’s initiative.  It is so good that it has felt able to invest in this way by moving into these excellent new premises.  The move is a marvellous vote of confidence in its future, and in each and every one of those who work here in Glasgow and in the firm’s offices in Edinburgh, Dundee, Glenrothes and Inverness: the partners, the directors of the professional management team and the associates, solicitors, paralegals and support staff.

It is right however that we should take a moment to reflect on why we are here at all.  Civil litigation is what this firm is all about – personal injury and employment law is what it specialises in.  Is the firm right to believe that what it is engaged upon, and the ethos which it has established for the way it conducts its business, has a future?  Is it right to believe that it is in the public interest that it should continue to provide people with the skilled advice and access to justice at no financial risk which they could not manage to arrange for themselves?

There are some who say that disputes in these areas of the law should not come to court at all – that mediation is the answer.  For them the courts should be seen, at best, as a last resort.  Their arguments were regarded with more than a hint of suspicion by my friend and colleague the late Lord Rodger.  He thought they were mistaken, and I agree.  Mediation has its place, but so too has litigation.  It has a value which tends to be overlooked but ought not to be.

Article 6(1) of the ECHR, after all, tells us that everyone has the right to have his or her civil dispute decided at a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal.  This is a good indication that our courts and tribunals do indeed provide the best vehicle for obtaining justice.  There are at least two reasons why this is so. 

First, they avoid the risk of under-settlement which is always present in a negotiation that takes place without the backing of the court process.  I read in a newspaper today of a complaint by the Association of British Insurers about no win no fee arrangements, in which it was said that insurers are committed to paying which it referred to as “genuine claimants” as quickly as possible.  No doubt that is true.  But every day experience tells us that there are two ways of looking at every claim.  The insurers’ view of what is genuine and what is reasonable is inevitably a view that is one-sided.  As often as not it will have to be challenged by the threat of court proceedings if a fair settlement is to be reached.

Second, litigation provides a very real and important service, when a case has to go to court, in explaining and developing the law and developing it into new areas.  Where would we have been without Donaghue v Stevenson?  Cases that have recently come before the UK Supreme Court provide other examples.  In Robb v Salamis, Spencer-Franks v Kellogg Brown and, Smith v Northampton County Council the Court was able to explore and explain what the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 really mean: something that the Regulations could not do for themselves.         

Not all decisions go the pursuer’s way, of course.  The decision of the House of Lords in Rothwell about pleural plaques is a recent example.  Now we have the Damages (Asbestos-related Conditions) (Scotland) Act 2009 enacted by the Scottish Parliament and equivalent legislation passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly this year to think about.  Are these measures within their legislative competence?  If so, what do they actually mean?  You will have to wait for the judgment that the Supreme Court is hoping to be able to deliver in the Axa General Insurance case on 12 October to find out the answer to the first question – and whether the second question is one that needs to be answered.

Of course, litigation is expensive for defenders as well as for pursuers.  But there is certainly a place for measures to enable people who could not otherwise afford to go to court themselves to obtain justice.  In the past, when I entered practice some decades ago, a high proportion of personal injury cases were financed by the Trade Unions.  I appeared frequently in cases brought against the National Coal Board by mineworkers with the assistance of the NUM.  Like the ABI’s insurers, the National Coal Board was committed to paying what it regarded as genuine claimants as quickly as possible.  But it was remarkable how often my mentor Evan Weir of Simpson & Marwick was able to tease out of a miner, by careful and detailed questioning, a ground of action which the man himself could not have explained and which the Coal Board itself had not until then been prepared to recognise.  I admired his skill and his commitment – a tradition of responsible litigation, which is the hallmark of the way Digby Brown conducts its business too.

So I think that we can feel that there are grounds for a very real sense of optimism at what this firm is aiming at and, on my part at least, for admiration too at what it has achieved during the past 104 years.  If we were launching a ship this evening, the perils of the sea are such that I would undoubtedly have to ask God’s blessing on all who were to sail in her.  As it is, resting safely on the solum in West Regent Street, you are on much firmer ground.  But sentiments of the same kind are entirely appropriate nevertheless.  So I extend my warmest good wishes for the future to everyone who will have the pleasure of working here and everywhere else where the firm conducts its business.

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Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Lord Hope of Craighead opens new Digby Brown Glasgow Office in September 2011

Tuesday 6th September saw the official opening of Digby Brown’s new office at 2 West Regent Street.  The firm was honoured when Deputy President of the Supreme Court, Lord Hope of Craighead KT accepted their invitation to officially unveil a plaque and open the new office. Over 100 guests attended the champagne reception, to hear Fraser Oliver of Digby Brown welcome the guest of honour and then listen with interest to the words of Lord Hope.

Fraser Oliver, Partner and Executive Board Member said:  “The culmination of over a year in the planning, this move to the new premises on 2 West Regent Street is built on the foundations of our recent business growth and is central to the future plans of the firm.  We were thrilled and honoured when Lord Hope kindly agreed to unveil our plaque marking the official opening. His presence befitted the importance to Digby Brown of the occasion and helped mark a significant milestone in the firm’s long history.” 

Lord Hope spoke kindly of Digby Brown’s new office giving credit for the firm’s initiative and willingness to invest for the future of each and everyone of those who work in Glasgow and in the firm’s other offices: “a marvellous vote of confidence in its future”, he said.

He spoke of his friend and colleague the late Lord Rodger and his view of mediation: “There are some who say that disputes in these areas of the law should not come to court at all – that mediation is the answer.  For them the courts should be seen, at best, as a last resort.  Their arguments were regarded with more than a hint of suspicion by my friend and colleague the late Lord Rodger.  He thought they were mistaken, and I agree.  Mediation has its place, but so too has litigation.  It has a value which tends to be overlooked but ought not to be.”

He went on to say, that our courts and tribunals do indeed provide the best vehicle for obtaining justice: “they avoid the risk of under-settlement which is always present in a negotiation that takes place without the backing of the court process.  I read in a newspaper today of a complaint by the Association of British Insurers about no win no fee arrangements, in which it was said that insurers are committed to paying which it referred to as “ genuine claimants” as quickly as possible.  No doubt that is true.  But every day experience tells us that there are two ways of looking at every claim.  The insurers’ view of what is genuine and what is reasonable is inevitably a view that is one-sided.  As often as not it will have to be challenged by the threat of court proceedings if a fair settlement is to be reached.”

“Litigation provides a very real and important service, when a case has to go to court in explaining, developing and clarifying the law and the impact this has.” As well as speaking of his own early experiences working in the field of litigation and dealing cases brought against the National Coal Board and how those cases were financed by the trade union. He said: “Of course, litigation is expensive for defenders as well as for pursuers.  But there is certainly a place for measures to enable people who could not otherwise afford to go to court themselves to obtain justice.  In the past, when I entered practice some decades ago, a high proportion of personal injury cases were financed by the Trade Unions.”
For a full copy of Lord Hope's address click here.

The evening culminated in Lord Hope unveiling a plaque which will proudly hang in Digby Brown’s new reception area at 2 West Regent Street, Glasgow.

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