Professional Negligence Claims

When the advice or service provided to you or your business by a professional falls below a reasonable standard, it can cause you or your business to suffer a substantial financial loss as well as inconvenience and distress.

A professional is anyone who provides advice or a service that requires specialist expertise or knowledge. JMW’s team of experienced solicitors have assisted individuals and businesses in bringing claims against a wide variety of professionals including:

Find out more about how our professional negligence solicitors can help you today. Call us on 0345 872 6666 or complete our online enquiry form to request a call back at a convenient time.

How JMW Can Help

Every professional owes a duty of care to their client and is required to exercise reasonable skill and care when providing their advice or service. If you feel that the advice or service provided by a professional has fallen below the standard of a reasonably competent professional in that profession, and resulted in you suffering an adverse outcome, JMW’s experienced professional negligence solicitors can provide an early assessment of the merits of you pursuing a professional negligence claim.

Upon assessing the merits of your potential claim, our specialist professional negligence solicitors will carefully review the individual background facts and any relevant documents, the events giving rise to the negligence act or omission, the loss suffered, and any steps you have taken to mitigate your loss. If you have a viable professional negligence claim, we will provide expert legal advice and assistance to ensure you are in the strongest position to take the claim forward towards a successful conclusion.

Before any claim is commenced, we will guide you through the specific process and procedure for pursuing a professional negligence claim in England and Wales, namely the Pre-Action Protocol for Professional Negligence (the protocol) that encourages the early exchange of information and evidence between the parties, and the narrowing of issues in dispute. The protocol also provides an early opportunity for the parties to explore settlement without going to court.

The parties to a professional negligence dispute can seek to resolve the claim at any point before or during proceedings and we will explore the options available to you for resolving the claim via alternative dispute resolution methods (such as negotiation and mediation) and advise you on the likely prospects of achieving an out-of-court settlement.

Many professionals hold professional indemnity insurance to cover any liabilities arising out of professional negligence claims against them and our professional negligence solicitors are experienced in dealing with insurers and their solicitors, particularly in connection with complex disputes that are defended.

As part of our initial advice, we will also consider what funding options are available to you to assist with financing your claim and explore whether you have suitable insurance in place to cover legal costs.

Our services focus heavily on our clients’ specific individual and business needs, an approach that has helped us become one of the largest litigation departments in the north west and recognised as Litigation Team of the Year at the Manchester Legal Awards in both 2019 and 2021. Our breadth and depth of experience in professional negligence claims enable us to quickly identify the material issues in dispute so that we can advise and agree upon the best strategic course of action for each individual case.

Fraud in Professional Negligence Claims

Occasionally a professional’s actions can fall into the realm of wrongdoing, either because the professional directly committed fraudulent or dishonest behaviour, or because they unwittingly became involved in fraud. In these circumstances, our experienced team can help you to bring a claim against the professional, such that their involvement in the fraudulent activity can be held to account for any losses suffered, even where they are not the direct perpetrator.

FAQs About Professional Negligence Claims

What are professional negligence claims?

When a professional, such as a solicitor, accountant, financial advisor, property professional or insurance broker, provides their services, they owe a legal duty of care to their client to act with the standards expected of a reasonably competent professional in that particular field. When such professionals fail to meet their legally binding responsibilities, they may be in breach of their duty to their client and their actions or omissions may have caused their client a loss, often a significant financial loss. If the loss suffered was a direct result of the professional’s negligent act or omission, then the individual or business affected may be entitled to bring a professional negligence claim (often accompanied by a breach of contract claim) against the professional.

This is a formal legal procedure in which the claiming party pursues a claim against the professional or organisation, seeking to recover damages in respect of their losses suffered.

What are 'damages' in professional negligence?

The term 'damages' is used to refer to the level of compensation awarded for the loss that can be attributed to the negligence, and the aim of ‘damages’ is to put the claiming party back in the position they would have been in had the professional not been negligent.

What do I have to prove for a professional negligence claim?

If you feel that you have been let down by a professional, perhaps due to wrong advice or poor service, and this has caused you loss, then you may be able to bring a professional negligence claim against that professional in tort and/or in a contract. To do so, there are four elements to be satisfied:

1. The professional must owe you a duty of care
2. There must have been a breach of that duty
3. The breach of duty must have caused a loss
4. The loss must have been reasonably foreseeable

To establish each of those elements, it is necessary for us to carefully review the material documents, for example, any client care correspondence, terms and conditions, emails, letters, and file notes, and to take further details of the events that took place leading up to the loss suffered. The professional negligence solicitors at JMW can help you to identify and gather this evidence. We may also need to obtain independent evidence from an expert to support the claim that the services provided fell below the standards of a reasonable professional in that profession and to identify what the correct advice or conduct would have been.

There are strict time limits for pursuing a professional negligence claim, known as a limitation period. For many claims, the period for commencing a claim is six years from the date when the negligence arose. However, the negligent act or omission may not be discovered until a later date and in such circumstances, the period for commencing a claim may be extended to three years from the date when the claiming party knew or ought to have known of a potential claim. It is therefore essential that where you or your business has suffered loss as a result of the negligence of a professional, you act swiftly in instructing solicitors to review your matter to limit the risk of you being prevented from pursuing a claim because it is out of time. Our professional negligence solicitors can calculate this date for you. 

What is the difference between negligence and professional negligence?

While 'negligence' refers to the action of treating something or someone with neglect, 'professional negligence' is a specific legal term that encapsulates any action or lack thereof by a professional who owes you a duty of care when providing their services. This may be actionable through any legally binding agreements that the parties may have entered into, or impliedly through their type of work; for example, legal professionals are held to the standard of a reasonably competent solicitor specialising in the area of law in which they practice.

How long does a professional negligence claim take?

Due to the variety of factors that professional negligence disputes involve, there is no set amount of time that they are held to - your claim could take anywhere from a few months to over a year. The amount of time professional negligence claims take depends on a variety of factors, such as the complexity and nature of the case, the amount of evidence you are able to provide, and whether the other party disputes your claim.

Your solicitor will be able to provide you with an estimate of how long they expect your claim to take.

Is professional negligence criminal or civil?

Professional negligence is a matter of civil litigation.