When a professional person gets an important part of their job wrong, the implications for clients can be monumental. Relying on negligent advice is an expensive mistake for any business to make but the law can be sympathetic.

Professional negligence claims are about compensating people and businesses for mistakes, fraud or a lack of care by their professional advisers. It could be a solicitor’s poor drafting or advice or an architect’s defective design work. Any professional person including:

• accountants
• engineers
• surveyors

stand to have action brought against them if they breach their duty of care to their client.

A successful claim involves more than just establishing that the professional concerned gave bad advice or failed to spot a crucial issue. It must amount to negligence and it must have caused a direct financial loss. Sometimes it will be relatively easy to quantify that loss and at other times, it will require some forensic work to establish just how much money has been lost or how much should have been gained had the professional’s advice not been negligent.

Embarking on a claim is as much about understanding the process as the ingredients of a claim. There are specific rules about what should happen before a professional negligence claim is issued at court. Their aim is to encourage the case to be settled before the litigious process really begins, and there are penalties for non-compliance.

The basic requirement of the pre-action protocols is that the claimant details their case in a Letter of Claim. The professional then has 21 days to investigate and respond. Only once that period has expired can the court action start.

About our Professional Negligence Solicitors

Our commercial disputes lawyers are experienced in every type of professional negligence claim. They’re quick to get to the issues that really matter and they’re incisive in their valuation of the claim, the assessment of the chances of success and the timescales and costs involved. They will guide clients through the correct procedures, always advancing the strongest possible case and looking for the best way of resolving the issues. Experienced in negotiations, mediations and arbitrations, as well as court advocacy, our team works had to get the right result as quickly and inexpensively as possible.

Please contact us to discuss how our commercial disputes solicitors might be able to help you.