Compensation For Professional Negligence – How Much Could You Receive?

Compensation-For-Professional-Negligence

A Guide To Compensation For Professional Negligence

In this guide, we will discuss how compensation for professional negligence claims could be calculated. If you use the services of a professional, you expect these to meet the correct standard. If they do not, it could cause you, the client, to suffer losses. In this case, you could be eligible to pursue professional negligence compensation.   

As we move through this guide, we will first discuss what is meant by professional negligence compensation. To support this, we will also provide a table for illustrative purposes. 

Following this, we will outline the eligibility criteria that must be met for you to have potentially valid grounds to bring forward a professional negligence claim. Also, we will explore the various types of professionals that could breach their duty of care.  

Towards the end of the guide, we will explain the term No Win No Fee and explore how working with a solicitor under this type of agreement can mean that you wouldn’t pay for their services upfront or whilst the claim is ongoing. 

To speak to someone about your potential professional negligence claim, please get in touch with a member of our team at Advice. We have advisors on hand 24/7 to give you personalised advice and insight into your case. They have access to our panel of professional negligence solicitors, but getting in touch will not obligate you to progress your claim with us.    

You can:

Choose A Section 

  1. Potential Compensation For Professional Negligence
  2. Professional Negligence Claims – Eligibility Criteria
  3. Who Can You Make Professional Negligence Claims Against?
  4. Why Make A No Win No Fee Professional Negligence Claim?
  5. Contact Us For Free To See If You Can Claim Compensation For Professional Negligence
  6. Learn More About How To Claim Compensation For Professional Negligence

Potential Compensation For Professional Negligence

The purpose of the compensation for professional negligence claims is to restore successful claimants to the position they would have been in if the failings of a professional had not caused them to suffer losses. Due to this, the way in which a settlement is calculated can differ, as the details of each claim can vary. As such, the way in which a professional negligence payout is calculated can differ. 

For example, if you were to make a claim against a personal injury solicitor for loss of chance, how the compensation is calculated would differ from a case brought against a surveyor for financial loss.  

However, all successful professional negligence claims have in common the 8% interest you can receive on top of the compensation for each year that has elapsed. 

Below we will provide a table containing examples of professional negligence compensation. Please do not consider these figures as a representation of what you will receive. 

Claim TypePotential Payout
Solicitor NegligenceUp to £500,000+
Financial Advisor NegligenceUp to £500,000+
Surveyor NegligenceUp to £500,000+
Accountant NegligenceUp to £500,000+
Engineer NegligenceUp to £500,000+

Would you like to discuss the amount of potential compensation for professional negligence that you could be eligible to receive? Speak to one of our advisors today. 

Professional Negligence Claims – Eligibility Criteria 

When you use a professional, they owe you a duty of care as their client. This means that professionals must ensure that the services they provide meet the correct standard. Should they fail to do this, it could result in a professional negligence claim. 

You may be wondering, ‘What is a professional negligence claim?’. Below we will lay out the criteria that must be met for you to have a potentially eligible claim of this type: 

  • Firstly, a professional, for example, an architect or a personal injury solicitor, owes you, their client, a duty of care. 
  • Secondly, they breach the duty of care owed to you. 
  • Lastly, as a result, you suffer losses. 

In addition to these criteria, it is also important to consider whether your claim is within the applicable professional negligence time limit. As set out in the Limitation Act 1980, you generally have six years to begin legal proceedings against a professional. There may be some exceptions to this limitation period. 

If you would like to find out whether you may have an eligible professional negligence claim, please speak to a member of our team. They can provide insight into whether your claim could be within the limitation period. 

Who Can You Make Professional Negligence Claims Against?

There are various professionals that owe you a duty of care as their client. Therefore, there are different types of professionals that you could bring a claim of this type against. For example, you use a surveyor to check the condition of a property, and they fail to recognise that the house is subsiding. Therefore, you buy the property. This could cause you financial losses in the future. 

Other professionals that owe you a duty of care and could therefore be negligent include: 

  • Engineers
  • Accountants
  • Financial advisors 
  • Architects

In addition to these listed above, a professional negligence claim can also be brought against a solicitor. We will discuss this in further detail in the following section. 

When Can You Make A Professional Negligence Claim Against A Solicitor?

All solicitors, as legal professionals, owe their clients a duty of care to ensure that the services they provide meet a reasonable standard. In this section, we will look at how solicitors that offer their services to clients wanting to make a medical negligence or personal injury claim could be negligent.

Failure to provide the correct level of services could result in a personal injury/medical negligence solicitor causing you loss of chance to pursue a compensation claim wholly or partially. This may lead to a solicitor professional negligence claim. 

Examples of professional negligence involving a personal injury/medical negligence solicitor include: 

  • Missing the time limit for your personal injury claim – As per the Limitation Act 1980, you generally have three years to begin legal proceedings for a personal injury claim. If the limitation date for your claim is missed by your solicitor after you have provided them with ample time to work on your case, it can cause your claim to be statute-barred. This could result in you losing your chance to pursue your claim. 
  • Failing to abide by court orders and meet court-appointed deadlines –  If your solicitor does not abide by court instructions, it could lead to either part of or all of your claim being struck out. 
  • Providing you with bad advice and under-settling your claim – Your solicitor may want to hurry your case along; therefore, they provide you with bad advice to settle your case early at a much lower figure than you could’ve been eligible to receive. In this case, you would lose out on the chance to pursue the higher award. 

There is also a Code of Conduct laying out the standards of professionalism that are expected of solicitors. This is provided by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), which is the regulatory body for solicitors operating in England and Wales. Failing to uphold this Code may not always be an example of professional negligence. However, you can report these failings to the SRA.

Contact our team to learn more about claiming compensation for professional negligence in a claim brought against a medical negligence or personal injury solicitor. 

Why Make A No Win No Fee Professional Negligence Claim?

You could work with a solicitor on the basis of a No Win No Fee agreement to pursue compensation for professional negligence. A popular type of No Win No Fee agreement, which our panel of professional negligence solicitors can offer, is a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). 

When you have entered into a CFA, you are not expected to make payments upfront or for the duration that your claim is ongoing for the services your No Win No Fee solicitor provides. Also, you generally will not pay for these services in the event that your professional negligence claim is unsuccessful.    

On the other hand, if you were to make a successful professional negligence claim, your solicitor working on a No Win No Fee basis can take a small percentage of the compensation. This is called a success fee, which is capped by law and will be discussed by you and your solicitor before entering into an agreement. Therefore, you will not be overcharged.   

Please contact our team for a free eligibility assessment of your potential professional negligence claim. Should an advisor find that you may have legitimate grounds to begin a claim for professional negligence compensation, they could connect you with one of the No Win No Fee solicitors on our panel. 

Contact Us For Free To See If You Can Claim Compensation For Professional Negligence

Please get in contact with a member of our team today to discuss whether you could be eligible to receive compensation for professional negligence. Our friendly advisors are available 24/7. Therefore, you can benefit from a free consultation at a time that is best for you. 

You can:

Learn More About How To Claim Compensation For Professional Negligence

For further information on claiming compensation for professional negligence, please take a look at more of our guides: 

Also, there are potentially helpful external links below for you to explore: 

Thank you for reading through this guide to when you could be eligible to claim compensation for professional negligence. If you still have any questions, please speak to one of our team members via the contact details above.