Professional Negligence solicitors.

If you have suffered negligence from accountants,solicitors or any other professional service understand your rights for compensation.

Professional Negligence solicitors deal with action against those in the professional services industries, accountants, solicitors, surveyors and architects, there has been an increase in the number of professional negligence claims mainly due to the fact that clients have a greater awareness of the ability to take action if the work has been substandard.


The first objective is to understand if you have a claim.

This is where we introduce one of those grey areas, 'duty of care', if the professional organisation had a 'duty of care' to the client and the client can prove that this was not met, and as a result the client suffered, then its possible a claim can result.

But what is duty of care? Well, if a professional states that they have the ability to undertake work, and they then fail in that task, they probably have breached their duty of care.
Sometimes the work you have instructed will be in writing but it does not have to be, also you may not be the person that engaged the professional in the first place, a good example of this is a solicitor that has incorrectly constructed a Will and, as the beneficiary, you have suffered a loss.

Duty of care is not always that clear, it will need to be established that the professional did not meet the standards normally provided, not just that they failed you. You would benefit in speaking to a solicitor as legislation changes fast and advice given in one instance may differ following a change.
In some circumstances you may feel the professional has been negligent but that may not be the case as a 'range' may be acceptable, a good example of this is if you felt that a property had been under or over valued, the courts may accept a range of valuations that would have been acceptable, and would have met professional standards.

Proving you have lost out!

In the world of jargon this will be termed as causation, and you will need to prove that you have suffered a lost, if you received advice or a service which turned out to be bad but you did not suffer a loss then you will not have a claim, you could still report the professional to their regulatory body but you will not be able to claim against them.

You will also need to prove that even though you lost out, you did so because of the advice or service, and the loss would not have occurred anyway, the case law on causation is vast and ever expanding, and it would be best to discuss your situation with a solicitor.

So what is your loss?

That is easy - what would have happen if the professional had done their job properly, but don't rush to work out a simple a formula for your claim, as there are lots and lots of other parts to that equation, for example what could you have done to minimise your loss? and if you did try to minimise that loss, but made things worse, you will not be able to claim for the increased loss.

In the end the court will decide, but your solicitor should be able to give you a fairly accurate indication.

Costs

As you can see the way a claim progresses is both complex and uncertain, you must be very clear when undertaking a professional negligence claim about how the costs will work, it is not unheard off that the legal fees exceed the amount of the claim, and even if you are successful you may not be able to reclaim costs in full from the defendant.

Having said that, don't let it put you off, always discuss your options with a solicitor as you may find that you are insured for your costs, or that the claim can be funded by you on an hourly rate or the solicitor can offer alternative funding arrangements via 'no win no fee'.

The way forward.

Your next step is to speak to a solicitor, time limits apply for a claim which vary depending on the act of negligence, but do not delay.

Your solicitor will also be able to discuss possible alternative routes, such as mediation, and if you decide to take your claim forward, they will explain how the claim will progress, before court action and what to expect if your claim goes to court.


Most professional services have independent complaints bodies that you can approach, but do not delay in seeking legal advice.