UoS BA Business Law and Ethics: Duty of Care and Legal Profession

This report delves into the core concepts of business law and ethics, examining the principles of Duty of Care and Tort law within the context of a case study involving Extortionate PLC and Samantha's injury. The analysis assesses the liability of the bank, exploring the ethical considerations and potential defenses. Furthermore, the report contrasts the roles of solicitors and barristers within the United Kingdom's legal system, highlighting their respective duties and rights. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the legal profession in the UK and the structure of the justice system. The report also explores the legal and ethical responsibilities of businesses, including their duty to provide a safe environment, and the potential consequences of negligence. It provides a detailed understanding of the English legal system, company and business law.

Module - Business Law and
Ethics

Table of Contents
TASK 1.................................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY........................................................................................................................................3
Duty of Care and Tort Laws..............................................................................................................3
Liability of Extortionate PLC towards Samantha’s Injury.................................................................4
Ethical Considerations for the Bank..................................................................................................5
Defence for Extortionate PLC...........................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION.....................................................................................................................................6
Task 2....................................................................................................................................................6
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................6
Legal profession in United Kingdom.................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES....................................................................................................................................11

TASK 1
INTRODUCTION
Injuries and accidents can happen to any person and these often have significant
consequences for the person who faced the accident and their families. There are several
legally mandated laws and regulations that protect citizens from accidental injuries at
business organisations.
MAIN BODY
Duty of Care and Tort Laws
Tort law is a common civil law that overlooks legal cases where an omission or act of
a party results in harm or injury to an individual and assesses the level of civil wrong in the
case for which legislative courts can impose correct liability that is dependent on the
criticality of the injuries and the amount of civil wrong done by the party. Tort is an invasion
of any legal right of a human. The primary aim of Tort law is to provide relevant and
appropriate relief to the injured parties who have faced accidents or injuries on account of
civil wrong done by others. The tort law imposes liabilities on the party because of whom the
accident or injury occurred with then intentionto provide justice and deter others from
making the same mistakes through which harm can occur to others (Wright, 2017). Tort law
shifts the burden of injury or loss from the injured party to the organisation or party because
of which the injury or accident occurred. Generally, the injured party demands monetary
compensations but can also be compensated using other methods such as restitutions and
injunctions.
Duty of Care is an ethical, fiduciary and legal requirement of company or business
directors that mandates encourages and mandates them to enforce and provide a certain
standard or level of care to others in their organisation. Generally, Duty of Care is considered
to be an implicit ethical responsibility of a business director, though it can also be
strengthened in the business organisation in the form of written contracts. Duty of Care
requires a business to make operational decisions that are ethical, legal in nature after
assessing the given situation and relevant information thoroughly so as to not let negligence
impact their decision making(Spamann, 2016). Failure of a business organisation to provide
standard duty of care to others within the business organisation can have negative legal and

financial consequences for the business and its leaders and directors, as the business
organisation and parties involved can be made to answer for their negligence related to Duty
of Care in legislative courts.
Liability of Extortionate PLC towards Samantha’s Injury
The Extortionate PLC can be held as liable for the unfortunate injuries sustained by
Samantha during her trip to the bank as the injuries that occurred to Samantha happened due
to the gross negligence of Extortionate PLC in providing effective and standard Duty of Care
to others within the bankingorganisation. As the injuries sustained by Samantha occurred due
to Extortionate PLC’s failure in being able to provide others with standard Duty of Care,
according to the Duty of Care and Tort laws, they can be held liable in litigations as if not for
their gross negligence, Samantha would have never sustained the unfortunate injuries in the
first place.
This negligence of Extortionate PLC is highlighted in the case study from the
evidence that the carpet on the stairs at Extortionate PLC had been coming away significantly
at the sides. This proves the negligence of Extortionate PLC and proves that the injuries
sustained by Samantha were not her personal fault as the carpet had been coming away
significantly which would not have been the case had the management of Extortionate PLC
paid dues to their Duty of Care and rectified their mistake, which is their negligence
(Tsinovoi and Adler-Nissen, 2018). After her fall due the significant coming away of the
carpets at Extortionate PLC’s stairs, Samantha tried to protect herself from the fall with her
hands out in front of her. This is a standard reflex of humans to protect themselves from
major injuries, but due to this Samantha ended up breaking her hand and sustaining
evengreater injuries from some nails at the bottom of the stairs at Extortionate PLC that were
exposed. This is another act of gross negligence by the leaders and managers of Extortionate
PLC against their legally mandated Tort and Duty of Care laws, as having exposed rusty nails
that other humans can accidentally scratch, slip on and injure themselves goes against all
standards that are prescribed by them in the Duty of Care to be followed with the intention to
provide adequate care to others within the banking organisation.
The liability of Extortionate PLC in this case is apparent to all, as the fall of Samantha
occurred due to the negligence of Extortionate PLC’s managers and leaders in providing
effective standardised Duty of Care to their employees and customers as is evidenced by the
significant coming away of the carpets at their stairs. This gross negligence of Extortionate

PLC is further highlighted through the evidence of exposed nails at the bottom of the stairs
which can have seriously negative consequences to people during accidents or falls, just as
was the case for Samantha (Hunter and Salzman, 2007). This negligence is further
exacerbated by the fact that Samantha was not the only individual to sustain injuries due to
the gross negligence of Extortionate PLC’s leadership and management to provide standard
Duty of Care in their organisation, with other clients also having to sustain injuries at
Extortionate PLC and the issue with the stairs having been raised officially to the leaders and
managers of Extortionate PLC prior to the accident suffered by Samantha. All these factors
prove that the negligence of Extortionate PLC to provide adequate Duty of Care in their
organisation to their employees and clients makes them liable for Samantha’s injury.
Ethical Considerations for the Bank
There are several ethical considerations and requirements for the Extortionate PLC
bank while conducting their daily operations. It is an ethical and moral duty of the leaders
and managers of Extortionate PLC to provide their employees and clients with a safe and
healthy working environment that is in accordance with their values and Duty of Care for
sustained productive and profitable operations. It was an ethical requirement for the leaders
and managers of Extortionate PLC to examine the issues related to their operational stairs
which had been raised to them due to falls occurred by their own clients prior to the fall and
injuries that were sustained by Samantha. Not only would this, but addressing the issue
related to the exposed nails at the bottom of the stairs was also another major ethical
requirement for the leaders and managers of Extortionate PLC, as both these can become
factors which put their employees and client’s health and safety at risk, which is a moral and
ethical requirement of Extortionate PLC to protect and safeguard within their organisational
premises (Moreau, 2018). Currently the ethical and moral considerations of Extortionate PLC
relate to owing up to their personal mistakes and reimbursing all their clients that have
sustained injuries to themselves on accounts of the negligence of the managers and leaders of
Extortionate PLC in providing standard Duty of Care to others within their premises and
addressing the issues within their organisation as soon as possible so that in the future they
can effectively provide their employees and clients with Duty of Care that is in accordance
with industry standards and their own organisational values.
Defence for Extortionate PLC
As the injuries sustained by Samantha while having to visit the premises of
Extortionate PLC, occurred directly due to the gross negligence of its managers and leaders,

according to the Duty of Care and Tort laws, Extortionate PLC has no appropriate defence in
this particular case except to own up to their liability towards the injuries sustained by
Samantha and reimburse her in relation to the damages caused to her due to their negligence.
As Samantha exercised reasonable care during her operations on the stairs, was not under any
influence of external substances and intoxicants which could have hindered with her reflexes
and judgement and due to the fact that many other clients different than Samantha had
sustained falls and injuries at the stairs in Extortionate PLC’s premises, no strong defence can
be made by Extortionate PLC in accordance with the legally mandated Tort laws, to protect
them from being labelled as the reason due to which the accidents occurred to their clients
(Goldberg, Sebok and Zipursky, 2016).Had Samantha not exercised proper reasonable care
during her commute on the stairs of Extortionate PLC or had she been under the influence of
external substances or intoxicants during the fall, the Extortionate PLC could have mounted a
strong defence to this case, but as this accident occurred to their gross negligence to provide
Duty of Care to others, they cannot have any reasonable defence in litigations.
CONCLUSION
This report evaluates the concepts of Duty of Care and Tort and assesses using
doctrine of Tort if Extortionate PLC can be held liable for Samantha’s injury. The report also
analyses the ethical requirements of the bank and any possible defence that Extortionate PLC
might be able to use in litigation.
Task 2
INTRODUCTION
This report has projected the differences between solicitor and barrister in United
Kingdom. Report will provide complete brief about both the bodies in the justice system of
United Kingdom. Different rights provided to the solicitor and barristers based on the justices
system of United Kingdom will be summarises in this report. This report will also project the
duties of the solicitors and barristers on the basis of the legal structure of the United
Kingdom.
Legal profession in United Kingdom
United Kingdom has its own justice system. In United Kingdom the entire justice
system is distributed into solicitor and barrister. Government in United Kingdom give huge

emphasis to improve its legal structure. As the justice is among one of the fundamental rights
peoples in country do possess. In order to develop good human practices in country justice
system must be strengthened enough o maintain the justice in the country. As the government
in United Kingdom aimed to improve its justice system and to strengthen the entire system
government has opposed the concepts of solicitor and barrister. Both the personals have their
own authorities and rights based on their professional capacities. This structure of United
Kingdom plays an effective role for improving the significance of the legal structure in
country. Ethical practices also play an important role for the government to ensure the proper
legal structure in country.
Solicitor
Solicitor is also claimed as the junior lawyer. In United Kingdom solicitor are
associated with the Law Society of England and Wales. On the basis of the roles specified by
the legal; structure of United Kingdom about the solicitors it is specified that the solicitor is
the entity who contains the rights to give legal advice to clients and also carry the authority to
represent clients in the courts also. In the initial stage solicitor collect the complete detail
about the case (Bradney, 2017). On the basis of the precise information granted by client over
a particular issue solicitor brief clients about all the legal proceedings that can be entertained
based on the personal expertise of the solicitor about the laws in United Kingdom. Laws have
specified authority to solicitors to work directly with the clients to solve the case. Solicitors
give all advices to clients on the basis of the knowledge and experiences. Solicitor contains
complete information’s bout all laws and regulations issued by government and courts.
Many solicitors are also specialises in some specific areas of law and also some of
them do their own advocacy cases. Due to specialise in a certain field of law solicitor contain
potential to advice significantly over a certain topic or a case. As per the working practices
apply by solicitors it is stated that solicitors engaged with all paper work and communication
involved with the clients (Bridgeman, 2017). They provide facilities such as writing precise
documents, letters, contracts and associated documents based on the needs of clients. On the
basis of the authorities granted to solicitors by the legal structure of courts they can involve in
collecting different kinds of proofs that can support the clients over a certain case in court.
They also involves in negotiating with the opposition party involves in case. Solicitors carry
the precise information and knowledge about the legal structure which allows them to
supervise the implementation of agreement. Solicitors play crucial role in monitoring and

controlling the entire case on behalf of the clients. As they contain the precise knowledge
about the laws which also drives solicitors to take a part in defining damage claims of clients.
All kinds of damages such as compensations, claims and other forms of damages they take a
part in all kinds of compensation damages on behalf of the respective clients.
It can be stated that solicitors take a part in the entire spectrum of legal work which
starts from high value commercial work related to personal injury cases, family law issues
which involves children law and divorce, criminal law issues, wills related cases and other
general administration of estates. Solicitors collect all necessary information related to all
such cases on behalf of its clients and if it’s needed they also carry rights to represent the
client in the court. Even in special cases or circumstances solicitors request to barristers and
other legal expertise to represent clients in the courts.
Legal structure do not allow solicitors in general situation to advocate on behalf of the
client in court but in some cases solicitors can appeal in court to advocate on behalf of it
clients with the consent of the client. Solicitors play an important role for catering justice to
its clients. They involve in the cases on behalf of clients from the initial level of the case and
they take a part in the cases till the end of the case at the final stage. It can be stated in order
to improve the justice structure in UUNet Kingdom solicitors played an important role
(Loveless, Allen and Derry, 2018). Earlier general peoples get so confused about the legal
requirements and other essential factors involves in cases which erased by the courts in
United Kingdom by allowing the concepts of solicitors that can professionally involve in the
cases and based on the knowledge and expertise they can give their opinions over a case to its
clients. Peoples also get clear information about the cases due to expe3rtisae of solicitors.
They also play crucial role in preparing the paper work to address the cases in courts on
behalf of the clients which also saves quality time of people in United Kingdom.
Barrister
Barrister is the person who represents clients in the court. Barristers are claims as
senior lawyers in the legal structure of United Kingdom. They can also be called as the
lawyers who can involve officially in the legal suits of peoples. As per the legal structure of
United Kingdom barristers are controlled and monitored by Barrister’s Association in United
Kingdom. In the general situation barristers are hired by the solicitors to represent cases in
the courts on behalf of the client (Davis,2017). As the solicitors do not carry the authorities to
claim witness on behalf of the client in courts they appoint barristers to fight for the witness

of clients. As per the definition stated in the legal structure of United Kingdom it can be
stated that barrister is the person who translate and structure their client’s views about the
events in the form of legal argument and on the basis of the incident occurred they make
persuasive representation that can generate the best results for the clients.
Barristers in general cases involves in all particular areas of laws such as criminal
law, chancery law (estate and trusts), commercial law, entertainment law, sports law and
common laws associated with the general public. Although it can be stated that the barrister
work will be significantly depends upon the knowledge, experience and the areas of law in
which they are engaged practising with (McLoughlin and Williams, 2019). Barristers fights
for the clients based on the evidences and materials collected by solicitors if it is appointed by
client. They present the case and put all sentences that can favour the client in court. As per
the statistics it is stated that out of 15500 barristers currently associated with the legal
structure of United Kingdom almost 80% of them are self employed in nature.
Barristers study all the details about the case in detailed manner so that effective
sentences can be presented in courts that can support client. Barrister contains all right that
can allow them to register witness to their clients based on the legal structure of the United
Kingdom. Profession of barristers allows them to work independently on their own to
entertain justice for peoples in United Kingdom (Pepitone, 2016). Most of the time barristers
and solicitors work on a project to provide justice to the clients. On the basis of the precise
information, proofs collected by solicitor’s barristers frame the convenient structure through
which they can allow justice for the clients. Barrister associated with all rights that is needed
to serve justice to peoples.
It is stated that due to the concepts of solicitors and barristers in United Kingdom
peoples are able to get justice in a very professional manners. Both the professionals play a
huge role in saving plenty of time of the clients which is needed to prepare different
documents and collect evidences that can support such clients in courts (Ridout, F., Gilchrist,
D. and Dunn, J., 2018). Both the professional bodies have supported the justice system in
United Kingdom by making it more accessible for the peoples in United Kingdom. It is stated
that most of the solicitors are worked under a legal firm but barrister works independently in
most of the cases.

CONCLUSION
This report has projected about the key differences between solicitors and barristers
based on the legal structure of the United Kingdom. The report has projected that solicitors
play an important role for collecting different evidences and preparing documents on behalf
of the clients. Barristers carry the right to represent clients in courts in order to entertain
justice for the peoples in United Kingdom.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Work of Norman Doe. Edited by Frank Crammer, Mark Hill QC, Celia Kenny, and
Russell Sandberg.
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Reflections on the legal process and the legal principles. Medical Law
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Davis, M., 2017. The directories. Modern Legal Practice. 1(3). pp.41-45.
Goldberg, J.C., Sebok, A.J. and Zipursky, B.C., 2016. Tort Law: Responsibilities and
Redress. Aspen Publishers.
Hunter, D. and Salzman, J., 2007. Negligence in the air: the duty of care in climate change
litigation. University of Pennsylvania Law Review.155(6). pp.1741-1794.
Loveless, J., Allen, M. and Derry, C., 2018. Complete criminal law: text, cases, and
materials. Oxford University Press.
McLoughlin, K. and Williams, J., 2019. An age of diversity: Where to next for the judicial
diversity project?[Book Review]. In University of New South Wales Law Journal
Forum (No. 2019, p. 1). University of New South Wales, Faculty of Law.
Moreau, S.J., 2018. Regulatory Negligence: Recent Update On and Analysis of" The Duty Of
Care". Canadian Journal of Administrative Law & Practice.31(2). pp.139-175.
Pepitone, R., 2016. Gender, Space, and Ritual: Women Barristers, the Inns of Court, and the
Interwar Press. Journal of Women's History. 28(1). pp.60-83.
Ridout, F., Gilchrist, D. and Dunn, J., 2018. Immigration University Clinics and regulation: a
working case study. International Journal of Clinical Legal Education. 25(3).
pp.135-149.
Spamann, H., 2016. Monetary Liability for Breach of the Duty of Care?.Journal of Legal
Analysis.8(2). pp.337-373.
Tsinovoi, A. and Adler-Nissen, R., 2018. Inversion of the ‘Duty of Care’: Diplomacy and the
Protection of Citizens Abroad, from Pastoral Care to Neoliberal Governmentality.
The Hague Journal of Diplomacy.13(2). pp.211-232.
Wright, J., 2017. Tort law and human rights. Bloomsbury Publishing.