If you have received inadequate advice from a qualified professional person, and have lost out financially as a result, you may be entitled to make a claim for professional negligence.
Disputes with professionals
Professionals are legally bound to exercise “reasonable skill and care” when dealing with clients. If they fail to do this and their mistake was one that a reasonable professional working in the same field would not have made, and the client lost money as a direct result of the mistake, then they are liable for damages.
Disputes arising from professional negligence can involve all manner of professionals, including:
- Accountants
- Architects
- Barristers
- Engineers
- Financial advisers
- Insurance Brokers
- Solicitors
- Surveyors
- Tax consultants
For a professional negligence claim to be successful, you will need to establish the existence of a duty of care on the part of the professional, and that this duty has been breached.
We have prepared a factsheet offering more advice on professional negligence matters. Please click here for more information.
Important things to consider
When dealing with professionals, you should always remember to put things in writing and to:
- Be clear about what you want and what you expect to be delivered
- Always make sure you know how much you’re paying and what you’re getting for your money
- Find out how long the work will take
- Determine when the advice will be given
If there’s anything you don’t understand, ask. Keep a record of conversations with the professional. When things go wrong, make sure the professional doesn’t do any more work until you sort everything out. Don’t feel pressured to accept the professional’s point of view. If in doubt, always seek a second opinion.
When making a claim, it is advisable to use the services of solicitors who specialise in professional negligence. Solicitors can provide you with essential advice on:
- Existence of a duty of care
- Scope of that duty
- Quality of the advice that is given by the professional
- Issue of causation
- Duty to mitigate
- Measure of compensation
You must follow certain procedures when making a claim for professional negligence, if you don’t, you run the risk of incurring cost penalties or your case being thrown out completely. By following the right procedure this will show that there has been co-operation between you and the defendant in an attempt to settle the case without going to court.
Why use Fisher Meredith?
Fisher Meredith is an award winning London law firm with offices in Richmond, Surrey and Kennington, London. Our professional negligence solicitors have an outstanding reputation for acting on behalf of individuals, businesses and organisations with highly successful results.
For 35 years, Fisher Meredith has developed a reputation for being approachable and “going the extra mile” for its clients whilst maintaining ethical and socially responsible standards.
What should I do now?
If you have suffered from inadequate professional advice or services, and you would like to bring a claim for professional negligence, our Dispute Resolution Department can provide you with quality legal advice to achieve the best possible outcome.
For initial advice or to arrange a meeting with one of our professional negligence solicitors, please contact our helpline on 0800 014 7445.
