But claims were statute barred!

The High Court has ruled that tax advisers were negligent with their advice to invest in two tax saving schemes. The court stated that no reasonably competent tax adviser could have advised these schemes.

This is one of a number of cases that are increasingly bypassing the FOS and going for unrestricted compensation pay outs allowed by the courts. FOS can only award £150k in compensation. Only yesterday the 15th June another case involving Alan Shearer the footballer was settled out of court. That adviser was defending himself - an indicator of no insurance and generally seen as unwise.

The court held that the defendants were providing advice, and not just information as they claimed. And with advice comes the corresponding obligation to consider all the potential consequences of that course of action. Ironically the claims were time-barred because the proceedings were instituted more than six years after the damage occurred. This isn’t the sort of trivial matter to bother the FOS!

Advisers would be well advised to check their PII and keep in mind the importance of notifying early claims to them at an early stage.