A Guide To What Is Professional Negligence
In this guide, we’ll be explaining what professional negligence is and how you can sue a professional if they have acted negligently, resulting in you suffering losses. It’s important to note that all professionals have a duty to provide their services to a reasonable standard; we’ll be discussing this in more detail later in this guide.
We will start off by explaining what a professional is and the criteria that must be met in order to have a valid professional negligence claim. Following in the next section, we will look specifically at professional negligence by a solicitor that provides services to claimants looking to claim for the likes of personal injury or medical negligence. Then we will look more broadly at what other professionals could be liable for negligence.
There is a section on professional negligence compensation that looks to explain how compensation is calculated and awarded. In the latter of our sections, we will look at the benefits of a professional negligence solicitor and No Win No Fee agreements.
To learn more about this, you can use the following details to discuss this with our team of advisors. In just one call, they can provide you with free advice pertaining to your claim and could connect you with a solicitor if they feel your claim is valid.
Contact us by:
- Calling us on 0161 696 9685
- Entering your details into the ‘contact us’ section on our website
- Talk to one of our advisors in the live chat bubble.
Choose A Section
- What Is Professional Negligence And When Can I Claim?
- Professional Negligence Claims Against Solicitors
- What Other Professionals Can Be Liable For Negligence?
- Potential Examples Of Professional Negligence Claim Amounts
- What Are The Benefits Of Using A No Win No Fee Professional Negligence Solicitor?
- Contact Us For Free Advice To See If You Can Claim Compensation For Professional Negligence
- What Is Professional Negligence? – Learn More Below
What Is Professional Negligence And When Can I Claim?
A professional is an individual who has received a thorough education to be qualified as a professional in their field. Professionals that agree to work with clients must provide them, as part of their duty of care, with the correct standard of services. Failure on the part of the professional to provide the client with the appropriate level of service can mean the client may suffer losses.
For you to be eligible to make a claim against a professional for negligence, you must be able to satisfy the following criteria:
- The professional owed you a duty of care,
- Due to actions or even inaction, they breached this duty,
- This breach meant that you suffered losses.
These criteria are what is known as negligence. To find out if you have an eligible professional negligence claim, call our advisors for free advice today.
Professional Negligence Claims Against Solicitors
As with all professionals, solicitors owe their clients a duty of care to provide them with a standard of service that is correct. Should a solicitor such as those that support medical negligence and personal injury cases breach the duty of care, they owe to their clients, this could cause them to suffer the loss of chance to pursue all or part of their claim.
Here we look at examples of professional negligence by a solicitor:
- My solicitor has led to my claim being struck out – In some cases, a failure to comply with the court deadlines or the instructions laid down by the court may see the court strike out the claim. This may be the whole claim or just part of it.
- Turned down claims – If a solicitor turns down a claim at the last moment before the limitation period expires, this deprives claimants of the chance to find alternative representation before their claim becomes time-barred.
- Your claim was under-settled by your solicitor – In certain instances, a solicitor may under-settle a claim by failing to include all of the damages. This can lead to the client receiving less compensation than they are entitled to. For example, if the solicitor forgot to include your loss of earnings.
- The limitation date was missed by your solicitor. In standard cases, under the Limitation Act 1980, generally, legal proceedings for a personal injury or medical negligence claim must be issued within three years. If this time limit is missed by your solicitor, the claim will become statute-barred.
To find out if you can sue a solicitor for negligence, call our advisors today for a free case assessment.
What Other Professionals Are Liable For Negligence?
Solicitors are not the only professionals that can be liable for negligence should they breach the duty of care they owe to clients; other professionals too can be liable should they cause their clients losses through a breach of duty of care.
Here we look at other types of professionals:
- Surveyors – Surveyors have a duty of care to provide accurate and thorough assessments of a property’s condition. Failure to identify and report issues with the property can mean that the purchaser faces financial costs they were unaware of.
- Financial Advisors – Financial advisors have a duty to provide sound and accurate advice to their clients. Should a client make an investment after being given negligent or bad advice from their advisor, they could suffer financial losses.
- Architects – have a responsibility, among others, to ensure that before a building project is started, the correct planning permission has been approved. Any issues with the planning permission can see a building demolished.
- Engineers – Engineers should work within the industry standard so that products and services meet the required standards. Failure to do this could see customers and clients suffer financial losses.
To find out today and for free if you have an eligible professional negligence claim, call our advisors at a time that best suits you.
Potential Examples Of Professional Negligence Claim Amounts
Successful professional negligence claims of all types will aim to restore the claimant to the position that they would’ve been in had the professional provided the correct standard of service to the claimant. As there are many different professionals and professions out there, the way compensation will be calculated will vary from case to case. For example, the way compensation is calculated against a personal injury solicitor for professional negligence will be different to how it is valued for a claim against a surveyor.
Every case is unique to the claimant; no two cases are ever the same, and for that reason, compensation is calculated on a case-by-case basis.
Below we have provided a table that has compensation examples for professional negligence. It is only for guidance. To have your potential claim valued, call our advisors today.
| Type of Claim | Potential Settlements |
|---|---|
| Solicitor Negligence | Up to £500,000+ |
| Financial Advisor Negligence | Up to £500,000+ |
| Surveyor Negligence | Up to £500,000+ |
| Accountant Negligence | Up to £500,000+ |
| Engineer Negligence | Up to £500,000+ |
What Are The Benefits Of Using A No Win No Fee Professional Negligence Solicitor?
By calling our advisors, they can assess your potential professional negligence claim in a free consultation. If they find that you have solid grounds to bring a claim, they can offer to connect you to a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel.
No Win No Fee solicitors often work under what is known as a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). When you make a professional negligence claim with a No Win No Fee solicitor under a CFA, you generally don’t pay for their services at the following times:
- No upfront fees are needed for the solicitor to start work on your claim,
- No solicitor fees are needed as the claim proceeds.
- If the claim fails, no fees are needed to pay for the work the solicitor has done on your case.
If you’re successful in your claim, you’ll have to pay a success fee. A success fee is a percentage of the compensation awarded. The Conditional Fees Agreements Order 2013 describes how this percentage is legally capped, and the percentage is discussed with your legal representative before you begin utilising their services.
Contact us by:
- Calling us on 0161 696 9685
- Entering your details into the ‘contact us’ section on our website
- Talk to one of our advisors in the live chat bubble.
Contact Us For Free Advice To See If You Can Claim Compensation For Professional Negligence
If you’d like to learn more about what is professional negligence, then you can read more of our guides below.
- How can professional negligence solicitors help you?
- What evidence do you need in professional negligence claims?
- What is the time limit on personal injury claims?
Alternatively, you can use the following links to learn more: