Dear Marten,

You might find of some interest the 1996 'Feasibility Investigation of

Joint and Several Liability' by the Common Law Team of the Law

Commission produced for the Department of Trade and Industry (ISBN

0115154523) which looked at various options for limiting the liability

of auditors and other professionals. It rejected the idea of replacing

joint and several laibility by proportionate liability but thought

capping was worth further investigation.

Andrew Burrows

Mårten Schultz wrote:

>

> A proposal for new legislation on liability for auditor's in Sweden

> has recently been presented. I am supposed to, on behalf of my

> faculty, to comment on the proposal. The proposal notes the

> difficulties of the big auditor firms working in Sweden to insure

> themselves, especially after Andersen. It thereafter proposes some

> liability limitations, the most interesting being that the auditor is

> liable only as a last resort (if a third party has a claim she must

> start with the company representatives) and in addition a cap on

> damages is suggested. (Approx. 11 million Euro.)

>

> I tend to dislike caps intuitively, but I guess there are some sound

> arguments for it. I would be very grateful for any comment on how caps

> in general are motivated in other countries and especially if some of

> you have experiences of caps on damages for auditors in particular.

>