A judge has struck out a professional negligence claim against international firm Charles Russell Speechlys (CRS), as they found no reasonable ground for bringing the claim.
Background
Stephen Finnan, a businessman and retired professional footballer, claimed he was negligently advised by the company regarding a dispute with his brother concerning their property businesses. He has claimed to have lost out on ‘at least £6m’ as a result.
However, the firm has denied all allegations against it and stated that Finnan’s allegation was without merit.
Master McQuail discovered that the only partial contrary to the fact on which Finnan sought to rely, which was not officially included in his particulars of claim, was that Finnan should have been informed to order repayment of the director’s loans.
The judge said:
“However, the claimant’s own evidence is that demands were made and that evidence is entirely consistent with CRS’s letters which include such demands. Accordingly, the pleading is not of a partial counterfactual, but of what in fact occurred. Since the demands were in fact made the outcome of their being made is known.”
Therefore, the judge struck out Finnan’s claim and particulars of claim, and said that the details “disclose no reasonable ground for bringing the claim.”
The judge went onto say:
“The cause of action in tort is incomplete in the absence of any pleaded causation of loss and the cause of action in contract could lead to no benefit to the claimant and pursuit of that claim would be wasteful of the resources of the parties and the court.”
The judge declined Finnan an opportunity to alter his particulars of claim and commented how there isn’t anything in the claimant’s evidence that supports a realistic case that any alternative and improved outcome than he reached could ever have been reached.
Comment
In order to bring a successful professional negligence claim against a solicitor, a claimant must prove the following:
1. That the solicitor owed a duty of care – This is usually established when a solicitor is instructed to act on your behalf. A solicitor will owe their client general duties under common law. However, their terms of business will also set out what the solicitor agreed to do for you.
2. That the solicitor breached that duty of care – A solicitor will generally be found to have breached their duty if their actions fell below a certain standard of care.
3. That this breach caused you to suffer a financial loss – If you can prove that a duty of care exists and that it was breached, you will then need to prove that the solicitors’ actions directly caused you to suffer a financial loss.
In the above case, the judge found that Finnan failed to identify that the loss he was claiming to have suffered was the consequence of CRS’ act or omission. The judge commented that Finnan had failed to show that anything CRS could have done might have produced a better result for him.
How can we help?
Daniel Brumpton is a Partner in our Dispute Resolution team, specialising in professional negligence and commercial litigation. Daniel heads our Commercial Litigation and is recognised by the independently researched legal directory, The Legal 500.
For more information on the subjects discussed in this article, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Daniel or another member of the team in Derby, Leicester or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or contact us via our online enquiry form.
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