Professional Negligence

Professional Negligence Claims

We advise and represent clients in claims against a wide variety of different professionals. Many professionals will have compulsory insurance (such as solicitors) or specialist insurance (such as Directors & Officers insurance) which means that claims for professional negligence are often dealt with and where successful paid out by insurers.

We have specialist Professional Negligence lawyers who offer a fast, experienced assessment of your potential claim and advice on prospects of success and funding, which may include no win no fee options. Please do get in contact.

Our experience includes claims against :-

• Solicitors & Barristers
• Accountants
• Directors (the claim is generally made against the company)
• Financial Advisors
• Insurance Brokers
• Architects
• Surveyors
• Estate Agents
• Doctors
• Dentists
• Vets

Proving negligence

Professionals owe common law duties to act competently and not negligently. They are also often subject to enhanced legal duties, either in specific statutes (such as with directors duties in the Companies Act) or from their own Regulatory bodies (such as professional conduct and ethics rules for solicitors or doctors).. Claims may also be based on contract (any terms or conditions or retainer agreement) as well as negligence.

To prove professional negligence, you must demonstrate that the professional fell below the standards of a reasonably competent professional.  Sometimes the standard will be even more specific, such as where a professional holds themselves out as a specialist, such as a property lawyer who specialises in conveyancing.

It is not necessarily negligent for a professional to give you advice which later turns out to be wrong as long as the advice meets the standard of care and competence expected and, generally, that the professional has fully explained the options and risks. For example, doctors cannot 100% guarantee the outcome of surgery, there will always be risks. In many cases, if the negligence is not very obvious and clear, expert evidence from independent expert witnesses may be required to ultimately prove that the individual has not met the required standard of competence and/or care.

Professional negligence can arise due to acts but also omissions (failure to advise or act when a competent professional would have).

Proving loss

If you can establish legally liability or obtain an admission of liability, you will then need to prove your losses. This is never straightforward under English law, which generally requires a claimant to establish loss and compensation damages are rarely claimable. It is up to the Claimant to prove loss and that any losses were as a clear consequence of the negligence and were reasonably foreseeable. There is also a duty to mitigate loss.

So, for example, if a professional makes a clear and obvious mistake and after the  mistake ongoing loss could be prevented if the professional is allowed to fix the mistake but it not allowed to, this could well result in any claimable losses being limited.