Professionals owe a duty of care to their clients; however, this standard is not always met, often resulting in financial loss.
Professional Negligence Claims
As a business or individual seeking professional advice, often at considerable expense, you rightfully expect this advice to be both clear and accurate.
Whether the guidance or service comes from an accountant, surveyor or solicitor, falling below the expected standard of care can be profoundly frustrating and may lead to significant financial loss and emotional distress.
Professional negligence can occur in a variety of ways, including:
• Incorrect advice prior to a property purchase
• Undervalued or overvalued assets
• Under-settlement of a claim
• Missed limitation dates or court deadlines
• Failure to comply with a court order
• Unsuitable investment advice
• Overlooked defects in a pre-purchase survey
• Incorrect advice on both risk and points of law
At Specters, we understand the severe impact such negligence can have on your financial well-being and peace of mind. Our team is dedicated to addressing these issues with the utmost professionalism and expertise, ensuring that you receive the justice and compensation you deserve.
What do you need to succeed in a professional negligence claim?
To be successful in a professional negligence claims, there are three main hurdles that need to be overcome:
- Duty of Care: It must be shown that the professional owed a duty of care.
- Breach of Duty: The duty was breached as a result of the professional’s negligent actions or advice.
- Causation and Loss: Finally, it must be proven that this breach directly resulted in a financial loss.
In order to establish these elements, we will undertake a comprehensive analysis of the events leading to the negligence, meticulously scrutinising all pertinent details to construct a robust case on your behalf. We will likely obtain the professional’s file of papers and all other relevant documents as part of our review.
We work with clients to calculate the financial loss they have suffered as a result of the professional’s mistake. By the end of a claim, we aim to put our clients in the position they would have been but for the negligence.
How can we assist with your case?
At Specters, we bring over 25 years of unparalleled experience in handling Professional Negligence Claims. Our distinguished team comprises seasoned solicitors and legal experts specialising in professional negligence, dedicated to acting on your behalf and recovering compensation.
Our business has a proven track record of securing substantial compensation for our clients across a diverse spectrum of professional negligence cases. These range from solicitors filing a wrong document at court, to being complicit in complex fraudulent investment schemes, such as Ponzi schemes.
We pride ourselves on our meticulous approach and commitment to delivering exceptional legal representation tailored to meet the essential needs of our clients. At Specters, your case will receive the attention and expertise it deserves, ensuring the best possible outcome for your unique situation.
We provide a variety of flexible funding solutions for professional negligence claims, including no win no fee, deferred fees, and no win low fee arrangements.
For further details, we invite you to request a complimentary initial consultation with Specters, where we can discuss your unique case and clarify the optimal funding strategy for your professional negligence claim.
Our professional negligence solicitors
Our previous cases
Failure to raise a point of defence
Specters represented a distinguished professional athlete in a complex legal claim against his former solicitors.
Our client had previously been embroiled in a high-profile dispute with his former manager. Regrettably, his initial legal team overlooked a pivotal defense point at the outset of the conflict, a detail that could have decisively undermined the manager’s claim. This oversight resulted in a protracted legal battle spanning over a decade, during which our client incurred substantial legal expenses amounting to hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Upon discovering the solicitor’s critical error, our client engaged Specters to pursue legal action against his former solicitors for their failure to identify and advise on the evident defense.
We successfully secured a significant six-figure settlement for our client.
Excessive property valuation by surveyor
A Peer to Peer Lender instructed Specters regarding a professional negligence claim against a Surveyor.
The Surveyor over valued a property that the Lender used as security against a loan. When the Borrower defaulted on the loan the Lender could not recover the full loan as the property was originally over valued.
Specters successfully recovered the full loan plus interest for the Lender.
Investment ponzi scheme
Group Action claim that Specters recovered millions for investors relating to a failed ponzi scheme that investors were promised a financial return from care and hotel rooms.
The conveyancers failed to advise the purchaser before completion that it was an unregulated collective investment scheme and a very risky investment
Frequently asked questions
What is Professional Negligence?
Professionals are those who represent themselves as having more than average skills and ability. They are usually members of professional bodies, such as the Solicitors Regulation Authority or Bar Standards Board.
A professional is negligent when he or she fails to perform their responsibilities to the required standard, which causes you, the client, to suffer loss.
Examples of this include a solicitor undervaluing your personal injury claim or missing a court date resulting in your claim being struck out by the Court, or a surveyor failing to spot structural faults in a building that resulted in subsidence.
Who will deal with my claim?
All professional negligence claims taken on by Specters are dealt with by an experienced lawyer with particular knowledge of this area of law.
Our specialists offer a 30 minute free consultation with no obligation, in a way that suits you, whether that is in person or via a video call.
How is my professional negligence case funded?
For certain cases, if they have reasonable prospects, we are able to offer you a No Win No Fee arrangement.
This means that if we do not win your case you will pay us nothing, and if we succeed you will pay a success fee up to a maximum figure that we will agree with you before we take on your case.
We fund many of our Professional Negligence cases this way.
How long do I have to claim?
The limitation date is the date before which a claim can be made. For professional negligence claims, the limitation date is six years from the date of negligence. However, this date may be extended if your date of knowledge of the losses arising from the negligence was later, in which case the limitation date will be three years from your date of knowledge of the negligence; there is an overall longstop date of 15 years.
We recommend that clients begin claims as soon as possible and well before the limitation date. The more time that you leave a claim, the more chance that key documents could be lost, memories of events could fade, or worst of all, limitation dates could be missed.
What is the process for claiming and how long does it take?
The claims process often follows a standard course. We will write to the professional to both notify them that we are acting and request any documents they prepared when acting on your behalf. On receipt, we will review those documents and generally have a stock take. If we still think the claim has prospects, we will send the professional a letter of claim. The Defendant will have approximately 4 months to respond. If the parties do not then reach a negotiated settlement, we will generally advise you to issue court proceedings, starting the process which may end in a trial.
On average, cases take 2-3 years to resolve, but every case turns on its facts, and straightforward matters are known to be resolved within a year.
What is mediation?
A mediation is a form of alternative dispute resolution i.e. a means of resolving a dispute without a [costly] trial. The parties appoint a third party called a mediator to facilitate a negotiated settlement to a dispute. A mediator is not a judge in so far as they do not pass judgement on the strength of either parties’ cases. They will facilitate dialogue between the parties which will allow the parties to better understand each other’s positions. The more the parties talk, the more likely there will be a mutually beneficial resolution.
Will I have to go to court?
In our experience, the majority settle prior to litigation and less than 1% of cases reach a trail.
