Lawyers' immunity challenged in court

Immunity protecting lawyers from being sued for damages over the way they conduct civil cases is being challenged in a landmark case which opened in the Supreme Court today.

The Court of Appeal ruled in March that barristerial immunity covering civil court cases and pre-trial work should be abolished.

The 4-1 majority decision followed a unanimous British House of Lords judgment in 2000 which found barristerial immunity no longer had a place in English law.

Sun Poi and Hilda Lorraine Lai, company directors of a horticulture business, sued Auckland law firm Chamberlains in 2002 for negligence over its conduct in a High Court case.

Chamberlains won the case by pleading the defence of immunity and the Lais appealed to the Court of Appeal.

The New Zealand Law Society and the New Zealand Bar Association, while not parties to the case, were granted permission to join the proceedings as intervenors and put their arguments as to why immunity should be retained.

The Court of Appeal left the question of barristerial immunity in criminal cases open to be argued at a later time.

The hearing before the five-judge bench of the Supreme Court is set down for two days.

- NZPA