Solicitors Brent

Professionals make mistakes, and this happens more often than meets the eye, and can be caused by incompetence or too much work taken on at the same time. Professional negligence claims and law is a specialist area where usually any claim is ultimately dealt with by insurers. This in turn generally means that a solicitor is needed who has experience and expertise in professional negligence law and claims and also experience of dealing with claims against insurers and the tactics used by insurers. It is also generally the case that insurers will take a claim more seriously where the negligence case is dealt with by a professional negligence solicitor acting for the claimant.

We have specialist professional negligence solicitors dedicated to assisting in claims against negligent professionals including

• Negligent solicitors
• Negligent barristers
• Negligent accountants
• Negligent architects
• Negligent surveyors and valuers
• Negligent estate agents
• Negligent doctors
• Negligent dentists

The legal basics to prove negligence

In order to establish that a professional has been negligent, it is necessary to prove that the professional:

• Owed you a duty of care
• Beached that duty; and
• as a direct result of that breach of duty you have suffered a recoverable loss.      

Duty of care

Establishing that you were owed a duty of care by a professional will depend upon the relationship between you and the professional, but such relationships often involve a direct contractual relationship where establishing a duty of care will usually be straightforward but in certain circumstances, a duty of care will still be owed even where there is no contractual relationship

Breach of duty of care

The starting point for establishing a breach will be what was agreed in any contract. However, the scope of the duty is often wider than a strict contractual one, generally the test is that  to prove breach, the standard of service or advice must fall below that which can be reasonably expected of the professional within his or her particular profession. This often comes down to rules of conduct or accepted practice for a profession and/or expert evidence given by a suitable professional in the same field as to what the generally accepted standard should be for the work undertaken or services provided.

Loss not compensation

English law is fundamentally about proving loss and not whether compensation should be awarded for stress and anxiety.  It is also generally insufficient to simply show a breach of duty and that some loss has been caused.  There needs to be a direct consequential link between the professional’s breach of duty and loss suffered and this area is generally one of the most difficult and hotly contested areas of professional negligence cases.

Solicitors negligence

There are numerous ways in which legal advice and services can go wrong, but some of the more common areas are :-

• General mistakes with conveyancing, financial errors and missing or failing to advise on issues with leases
• Missing legal deadlines regarding litigation, lease renewals and many other areas
• Errors, lack of advice or wrong advise relating to wills and probate
• General bad advice or inadequate service

Accountants negligence

Examples of potential accountancy negligence are :-

• inadequate planning, control and recording of an audit
• errors in the preparation of accounts
• incorrect advice e.g. in relation to taxation or the valuation of shares

Financial advisors negligence

The duties/liabilities of financial advisers can arise from :-

• a breach of a statutory provision
• a breach of a relevant code of practice
• Negligent advice on mortgages, pensions and investments and also payment protection insurance and endowments
• negligence in respect of the failure to act with the degree of care and skill to be expected of a reasonably competent financial adviser.

Surveyors negligence

Examples of negligence by surveyors include:-

• Failing to inspect properly
• Failing to observe visible defects in the property e.g. dry rot, woodworm, cracking and subsidence
• Failing to make sufficient enquiries
• Producing an inadequate report e.g. in terms of failing to warn that some items require further investigation