Solicitors & Professional Negligence
What is professional negligence?
Professional negligence is seen as negligence, committed by professionals, whilst at work. Professionals are legally bound to exercise “reasonable skill and care” when dealing with clients. If they fail to do this and their mistake was one that another, reasonable professional working in the same field would not have made, and the client lost money as a direct result of the mistake, then the ‘professional’ is liable for damages.
Disputes arising from professional negligence can involve any type of professionals, including:
- Accountants
- Architects
- Barristers
- Engineers
- Financial advisers
- Insurance Brokers
- Solicitors
- Surveyors
- Tax consultants
For a professional negligence claim to be successful, you will need to establish the existence of a duty of care on the part of the professional, and that this duty has been breached.
Duty of care is a requirement that a professional person is required to act toward others and the public with watchfulness, attention, caution and prudence that a reasonable person in the circumstances would. If a person’s actions do not meet this standard of care, then the acts are considered negligent, and any damages resulting may be claimed in a lawsuit for negligence
If duty of care has been clearly breached then it must also be stated that necessity to prove that your financial loss came about as a direct result of the negligent professional’s actions, is a must for the case to continue. If these losses can’t be proved this way then the claim will lack any basis for continuation. It is only possible to claim for losses that are reasonably foreseeable.
When making a claim, it is advisable to gain legal advice and consultation through the usage of specialist professional negligence solicitors. Solicitors can provide you with essential advice on:
- Existence of a duty of care
- Scope of that duty
- Quality of the advice that is given by the professional
- Issue of causation
- Duty to mitigate, and;
- Measure of compensation
If you’ve suffered a loss due to following the advice of a professional, you deserve to be compensated, an experienced solicitor will be able to ensure that you get all the money you are entitled to. If you need assistance finding the right solicitor to resolve your dispute, our Find a Solicitor Service can get you in contact with a qualified expert in any area of law.
Specific rules and guidelines must be followed when making a claim for professional negligence, if these procedures are not honoured and met with, you run the risk of incurring cost penalties or your case being thrown out completely. By following the right regulations and guidelines, the level of co-operation between the two parties will become apparent to the third party (the deciding, governing body- i.e. the courts) this will show that there has been co-operation between you and the defendant in an attempt to settle the case without going to court, which is always the preferred way to settle disputes. (See ADR: Alternative Dispute resolution.)
These regulatory guidelines are laid out in the pre-action protocols which were introduced by the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) 1998. They involve corresponding directly with the negligent professional in question, either by yourself or via a professional negligence solicitor and setting out the factual and legal basis of your claim. This is known as the Letter of Claim.
The Letter of Claim should include the following:
- A chronological summary of the case
- Allegations against the professional
- Confirmation of whether an expert has been appointed
The professional must acknowledge receipt of the letter within 21 days of receiving it. There is a time-limit of three months for the matter to be dealt with before it may become a matter for the courts. If the dispute is not resolved by this time, then you may take your case to court. Most professional negligence claims are heard in the county court.
Exceptionally high-value and complex cases may go to the High Court.
