A Guide To Claiming For Professional Negligence

In this guide, we’ll be discussing when you can receive compensation for professional negligence if a professional has caused you losses by failing to provide you with the correct standard of service. This guide will provide a definition of what a professional is as well as explain the eligibility criteria that must be met in order for you to have a valid professional negligence claim.

We will start off this guide with an introduction to professional negligence and when professionals owe their clients a duty of care. We will then look more specifically at whether you would be able to claim if a solicitor that represents civil claims breached the duty of care they owe to you, their client, and this caused you to suffer the loss of chance. Next, we shall examine what other professionals could be liable for negligence.

When making a professional negligence claim or any compensation claim, you will need to adhere to the time limits set in the Limitation Act 1980. These will dictate how long you have to start legal proceedings. For this reason, we have dedicated a section to the limitation period.

In the final sections of this guide, we will look at the benefits of instructing a No Win No Fee professional negligence solicitor and also provide more sources where you can find further information.

To find out if you are eligible to make a professional negligence claim or to enquire about the claims process, why not call our advisors today for free advice? They are available around the clock to answer any questions you may have.

Contact Details:

Use our ‘contact us’ online form
Phone 0800 408 7825
Or, connect with an advisor using the online chat feature

Browse Our Guide

When Can You Claim For Professional Negligence?
Claiming Against Solicitors For Professional Negligence
What Types Of Professionals Could Be Liable For Negligence?
Time Limits In Professional Negligence Claims?
Can I Work With A No Win No Fee Solicitor For A Professional Negligence Claim?
More Resources On Claiming For Professional Negligence

When Can You Claim For Professional Negligence?

To become a professional, you must have been educated and trained to this level. The term professional reflects the standard of education, experience and training that has been needed to prepare the individual and give them the knowledge and set of skills to perform at this standard. Therefore when a professional such as a solicitor, surveyor, accountant or financial advisor but to name a few, agree to work with a client, they owe them a duty of care to provide the client with the correct standard of service.

If a professional were to breach their duty of care and provide a service that does not meet the correct standard, this could cause their clients to lose out. Therefore they could be liable for negligence.

To have a valid claim against a professional, you must be able to prove the following criteria:

A professional owed you a duty of care,
This duty of care was breached,
And this breach resulted in you suffering losses.

You can contact us for more information on the eligibility for making a professional negligence claim.

Claiming Against Solicitors For Professional Negligence

Here we look at how you may lose the chance to pursue your personal injury or medical negligence claim because of your solicitor’s actions. Loss of chance may occur if your solicitor has breached their duty of care, leading to you no longer being able to pursue a claim for compensation.

Dismissing your claim – If a medical negligence solicitor were to dismiss your claim right before the limitation date, this would mean that you may find it difficult to find alternative representation.
Missing the limitation date – Claims for personal injury or medical negligence must have legal proceedings initiated generally within 3 years according to the Limitation Act 1980. If the solicitor misses this limitation date, the claim would become statute-barred, meaning you can no longer pursue it.
Your solicitor’s actions resulting in your case being struck out – Your case could be struck out by your solicitor’s actions if, for example, they didn’t comply with a specific court-given date or if they missed court appearances. If all of your claim is struck out by the court, it can mean it is no longer pursuable.

To learn more about the different ways that professional negligence can occur, you can contact us for more information.

What Types Of Professionals Could Be Liable For Negligence?

Other than solicitors, here is a list of other professionals:

Surveyors – Surveyors have a duty of care to provide accurate and thorough assessments of a property’s condition. If they failed to do this, for example, they missed that the property was subsiding, this could cause the purchaser costs they were not expecting.
Accountants – accountants have a duty to manage and record clients’ finances, amongst other things. If the account failed to detect fraud within a business, the business owner could suffer huge financial losses.
Financial advisors – Similarly, financial advisors have a duty to provide sound and accurate advice to their clients. If they provided negligent or bad advice, the client could make an investment that meant they suffered financial losses.
Architects – Architects are responsible for creating plans. If, after gaining planning permission, they altered the plans without getting further permission, then any constructed building may need to be taken down.

Note that this isn’t a conclusive list of the different professionals. For more information on the different types of professionals that you could potentially bring a claim against, you can contact us.

Time Limits In Professional Negligence Claims

The time limit to start a professional negligence claim is 6 years. This is because professional negligence is a breach of contractual terms. This is established in detail in The Limitation Act 1980. Note, though, there can be exceptions to this rule.

To find out if you are still within the limitation period to bring a claim against a professional, call our advisors today for free. During a free consultation, you can have your case assessed, valued and be connected with a No Win No Fee professional negligence solicitor from our panel if you have a valid claim.

Can I Work With A No Win No Fee Solicitor For A Professional Negligence Claim?

Have you thought about working with professional negligence solicitors?

The solicitors on our panel may offer to represent you if your professional negligence claim is valid on a No Win No Fee basis through a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). This is a type of No Win No Fee Agreement that means you do not have to pay for the service the solicitor provides upfront, while the claim is in progress or should the claim fail.

On making a successful claim, you’ll have to pay a success fee to your legal representative. This is outlined in The Conditional Fees Agreements Order 2013. The success fee is a percentage of your award but has a legal cap placed on it by the above legislation.

In short, our panel of solicitors can help you by:

Building evidence for your case
Sending important documents
Keeping you updated on the state of your case
Giving you an idea of the amount of compensation you could receive
Presenting your case

Evidence is imperative when making a claim. This can come in the form of any communication that your professional has sent to you during the course of their services.

You can use the following information for a free consultation with our team of advisors. Providing you have a valid claim, you can choose to work with our panel of solicitors.

Contact Details:

Use our ‘contact us’ online form
Phone 0800 408 7825
Or, connect with an advisor using the online chat feature

More Resources On Claiming For Professional Negligence

If you’d like to learn more about the process of making a professional negligence claim, then you can read our guides below:

Alternatively, we have provided further resources below:

We hope that this guide to professional negligence has been helpful. For more information, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us by using the information above.

Make A Professional Negligence Claim