We are a City of London law firm of specialist professional negligence Solicitors and Barristers. We’re experts in settling very high value contentious professional negligence disputes. We excel in dealing with complex and sensitive claims against other leading organisations. We regularly assist with legal claims against:
- Solicitors
- Barristers
- Conveyancers
- Legal Executives
- Accountants
- Auditors
- Auctioneers
- Valuers
- Surveyors
- Will-writers
- Estate agents
- Trade Unions
- Independent Financial Advisors (IFAs)
- Tax advisers
- Insurance brokers
- Medical and Healthcare Professionals
- Architects
- Engineers
- Project Managers
- Construction professionals
- others who hold themselves out as professionals
Instruct our Professionals to pursue your Claim
Our dual-qualified Solicitor & Barrister team assess your case at the outset. We will quickly determine the merits and prospects of the claim and then also advise you on how to obtain an optimal settlement (often on a no win no fee basis).
LONDON LAWYERS
Qualified lawyers at the only law firm with chambers in the Middle Temple (a Barristers’ Inn of Court) in the City of London
PNLA MEMBERS
Dedicated PNLA member specialist negligence lawyers with expertise in high value professional negligence disputes and claims
PROFESSIONALLY REGULATED
Our professional negligence solicitors and barristers offer regulated, independent & confidential legal advice
We provide results-focused legal representation to individuals and companies that have been subject to bad advice or conduct and can often act on a no win no fee basis after an initial assessment.
Our typical cases have a value of several hundred thousand pounds and our largest current case is worth in the region of £7 million and is a complex case against a large well-known London law firm.
Our experience and advice will help guide you on the ideal legal strategy to obtain optimal compensation for the loss you have suffered.
We have a specialist team of professional negligence legal experts with years of experience in negotiating with professionals, their indemnity insurers and their solicitors. We regularly represent our clients at mediations with insurers which often lead to settlement.
Where cases have to be progressed we are experienced at acting as legal representatives on negligence claims before the County Court, High Court and Court of Appeal and can take over conduct of existing claims.
We recommend that you let us, as experts, handle your matter. Here’s why:
- reduce failure risk from attempting to manage and understand complex negligence disputes or civil procedural rules and laws yourself;
- expert assistance and advice which can obtain an optimal result; and
- dedicated specialists which results in a faster solution to your problem.
Areas of Expertise:
We regularly undertake professional negligence litigation in these core areas:
LEGAL NEGLIGENCE
Compensation claims against legal professionals, solicitors, barristers, law firms, conveyancers and intellectual property attorneys
FINANCIAL NEGLIGENCE
Negligence claims against financial professionals, auditors, actuaries, insurance brokers, lenders, stockbrokers, IFAs, accountants & tax consultants
PROPERTY NEGLIGENCE
Claims against conveyancers, architects, chartered surveyors, valuers, quantity surveyors, planning consultants & builders
Need a specialist negligence lawyer to bring a claim against a professional?
Had bad advice? Suffered financial or personal loss?
We are a specialist leading City of London law firm based in the Middle Temple Inn of Court adjacent to the Royal Courts of Justice, High Court and Court of Appeal. We specialise in bringing professional negligence claims and have years of experience in handling, resolving and settling negligence disputes and are members of the Professional Negligence Lawyers Association (PNLA).
Our City of London solicitors and barristers have market-leading experience of providing bespoke legal advice and bringing complex claims to settlement. As a leading law firm regularly featured in the news and media and with a track record of success, you can be assured that your compensation claim will proceed with precision and care.
ProNeg Litigation News
UK Professional Negligence Legal News Articles from our team:
UK Professional Negligence Claims: Key Legal Cases & Principles
Professional negligence claims involve holding professionals accountable for failing to meet the expected standard of care, resulting in client losses. Key factors in these claims include the scope of the professional’s duty, extent of the breach, and causation of loss, with damages calculated under principles like the “SAAMCO cap”, limiting recovery to losses within the…
Unrealistic Cost Estimates Leads to Professional Negligence Claim
The key takeaway from this case is offering realistic, transparent, and accurate cost estimates is both a professional duty and a vital element in preserving trust and integrity in the legal realm. Neglecting this obligation can lead to costly disputes, as demonstrated in the Amanda Kenton v Slee Blackwell LLP case, impacting both the law…
Professional Negligence in Legal Services: Lessons from King v DWF LLP
The case of King v DWF examines allegations of professional negligence and dishonesty. Despite claimants accusing their legal advisors of mismanagement during a 2017 trial, the court found these claims unmerited, highlighting the judicial resistance to recognising negligence in situations involving complex professional judgment. This case underscores the difficulty of proving negligence in scenarios reliant…
Solicitors’ Duty of Care to Third Parties
This article explores the Solicitors’ Duty of Cares to Third Parties, particularly focusing on the recent Court of Appeal ruling in Ashraf v Lester Dominic Solicitors. While solicitors primarily owe duties to their clients, the case raised the question of whether they also bear responsibilities towards non-clients. The Court hinted at the possibility that solicitors,…
Professional Negligence Claims against Immigration Lawyers
Professional negligence claims against immigration advisors result from perceived failures in the advisors’ competence and care, causing harm or financial losses to clients. Negligence examples include incorrect applications, missed deadlines, and providing incorrect advice. Clients must prove breach of duty and harm to pursue claims. Resolution involves consultations with legal professionals, evidence collection, and negotiation,…
Surveyor Negligence in Cedar House Valuation Case
Hope Capital engaged Alexander Reece Thomson LLP to value Cedar House, which was intended as security for a loan. Hope claimed the valuation was negligent and sought damages. The court ruled the valuation was outside an acceptable range, but factors beyond negligence affected the property’s value. The judge ultimately found that Hope suffered no actionable…
Professional Negligence FAQs
Our frequently asked questions about professional negligence litigation:
What does professional negligence mean?
Professionals must act to the standard of a reasonable body of professionals in the same profession. Therefore not every error is actionable negligence unless the act or omission breaches the duty of care expected of a reasonable professional. Duties of care can arise by way of contract or by common law tort.
What’s the basis for a negligence claim?
A negligence claim must satisfy three basic requirements on the balance of probabilities otherwise it will fail: (1) a duty of care must be owed by the professional; (2) the professional must have breached this duty; and (3) the breach of that duty must cause a loss.
If you’d have suffered a loss regardless of the professional’s negligence or if the real cause of your loss was due to an extraneous factor outside of the responsibility of the profesional then a claim would be reduced or extinguished.
Can I start a professional negligence claim?
A legal claim in England & Wales in must follow the Professional Negligence Pre-Action Protocol, per the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR). The Pre-Action Protocol encourages a letter before claim, a response and an exchange of information and sets out a timetable.
Is my professional negligence case time-barred?
The primary limitation period to issue a court claim is 6 years from the cause of action (s2, Limitation Act 1980). Limitation is usually fatal to any claim. However, if a claimant has only just discovered the problem, then the limitation period may be extended to 3 years from the date of knowledge (section 14A, Limitation Act 1980).
Legal advice should always be sought promptly.
How much compensation can I get from a negligence claim?
Compensation will be awarded in the amount that puts you back into the position you would have been in had the breach by the professional not occurred. Damages are generally assessed from the date of the breach but the Court could select another date to do justice between the parties. Only damages that are reasonably foreseeable can be claimed.
Ordinarily a professional will have professional indemnity insurance to ensure any compensation claim can be satisfied. A professional is required to have indemnity insurance if they are a member of professional bodies such as the Bar Council, the Law Society or the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
Solicitors normally have minimum insurance cover of £3,000,000.00.
What if the professional is insolvent or has limited worth?
Almost all professionals have professional indemnity insurance (PI insurance) which may payout against legal claims. For example, regulated solicitors may have minimum insurance cover of £3,000,000.00.
We will investigate this for you once you formally instruct us to resolve your dispute.
If your opponent is in an insolvent position we will work with our in-house insolvency litigation lawyers to make a creditor claim.
Who can be sued for professional negligence?
A claim can be brought against any professional – the list is extensive. A professional is an individual or a firm who hold themselves out as having expertise and skill in the services they provide.
We help clients make a successful professional negligence case after receiving bad advice from: lawyers; financial advisers; accountants; valuers; IFAs; surveyors; architects; builders; tax consultants.
What are examples of negligence by a professional?
Establishing professional negligence is more than being given “bad advice”– a claim can be made where a professional fails to perform their responsibilities to the standard expected of them, for example:
- Lawyers: missed time limits; failure to investigate fundamental evidence; failure to prepare a case with due care; failure to comply with court directions; and providing incorrect legal advice.
- Financial advisers: failure to advise on the risks of a entering into a financial product; wrongly assessing a client’s attitude towards risk when recommending a (risky) financial product to invest in; and failing to follow instructions provided by a client.
- Surveyors: failure to discover latent defects such as dry rot, woodworm, a leak; over-valuation of a property; and failure to identify subsidence.
- Conveyancers: failure to investigate title correctly; failure to discover or warn of restrictive covenants burdening the property; failure to ensure proper planning permissions and building regulations consents obtained.
What does ‘contributory negligence’ mean?
This means that your own negligence contributed to the loss or damage suffered by you. In such circumstances, the opponent professional argues that you (or another party) has caused or contributed to the damage suffered.
This is a partial legal defence and if successfully argued, the losses claimed would be reduced (the judge would have to consider and determine your share in the responsibility).
What does legal ‘causation’ mean?
You must show that the defendant’s actions caused the actual loss or damage. Causation arguments are relevant to the assessment of damages.
There are two aspects to the question of causation:
(1) The factual element i.e. did damage result from the breach of duty? Factual causation requires you to prove that it is more likely than not that the loss or damage wouldn’t have occurred “but for” the defendant’s breach of duty ; and
(2) The remoteness element i.e. even where loss or damage has been caused in fact by the defendant’s breach of duty, should the defendant be held responsible for all the consequences of his breach?
Are there any restrictions on damages recoverable?
Even where the professional’s wrongful conduct caused the loss, it will not necessarily be responsible for every loss as some losses are irrecoverable. Sometimes losses will be viewed as (1) too remote to be recoverable, (2) or you may have ‘failed to mitigate’ your loss or (3) you may have contributed to the loss suffered.
Want legal advice on the merits of your case?
Your legal enquiry goes immediately to our PN litigation team in Middle Temple, London. We can’t take on low value cases or give free legal advice – our minimum fee is £1500 +VAT for a conference with a solicitor and barrister. Call us on +442071830529.