Professional Negligence

Take Immediate Action With Our Professional Negligence Claim Lawyers

If you or your business has suffered financial losses as the result of negligent advice or actions by a professional, you may have grounds to pursue a claim for damages.

Helix Law’s expert team of professional negligence claim solicitors can help.

Fill out our no-obligation contact form today. We aim to respond to all queries within an hour.

Due to our expertise in acting nationally in complex commercial disputes, we’re frequently instructed to intervene when transactional work in the commercial, property/development or some other arena has gone wrong.

Our commercial litigation team has extensive experience acting nationwide in claims against:

Solicitors
Barristers
Mortgage and finance brokers
Consultants
Conveyancers
Engineers
Financial Advisors
Insurance Brokers
Surveyors
Tax advisors
Valuers

The legal definition of “professional” is broad, and the list above is far from exhaustive. The claim process varies significantly by industry sector, and we don’t act in medical negligence cases.

If you believe you’re a victim of professional negligence — or if you or your business has had a claim brought against you — we’re happy to help.

We’re often instructed in negligence disputes where we’re approached with ‘X’ as the issue, but no one has considered that actually ‘Y’ was responsible.

Either by act or omission, ‘Y’ might have prevented the problem from arising.

We frequently help identify such failures and introduce the concept of a professional negligence claim to assist in recovering loss and damage.

Key Contacts

Alex Cook

Senior Partner

Sam Packwood

Partner

What Is Professional Negligence?

When a professional fails to meet the standards of conduct required by their industry, a contract, or a “reasonable person,” the courts may find them negligent if a claim is brought.

Most professions in the UK are regulated by law under the Professional Qualifications Act 2022.

Specific regulations vary by profession, but a professional individual or company generally owes a “duty of care” to clients.

What Are the Elements of a Professional Negligence Claim?

Three branches of UK law cover claims of professional negligence: contractual, statutory, and tortious.

In most instances, a professional you hire owes you a legal duty of care under contract and tort.

In cases without a written, verbal, or implied contract, the professional may still owe you a duty of care under tort.

The required elements of professional negligence claims are as follows.

Legal Duty of Care

Duty of care must be proven for a professional negligence claim to succeed in court.

In most instances, a written contract, retainer, or agreement of work between a professional and client will establish the duty of care.

Even if you only have a verbal or implied contract, the professional may be liable under the Supply of Goods and Services Act.

Absent any kind of contract, you may be able to pursue a professional for liability under tort law, but claims based on tortious liability alone are uncommon.

Recoverable Damages

You must show that you’ve sustained damages due to professional negligence, such as:

Injury
Financial loss
Personal or reputational harm
Material harm to your business

Additionally, the damages must be recoverable for the claim to succeed — either through the award of financial damages or other means.

Foreseeable Harm

Damages caused by professional negligence must be deemed foreseeable by a “reasonable man”.

Otherwise, you may merely have a complaint — not a legitimate professional negligence claim.

Breach of the Duty of Care

Breaches of care that occur frequently between professionals and clients — either individuals or companies — include:

Ill or deliberately misleading advice
Failure to follow instructions
Service below a reasonable professional standard
Breach of statutory duty
Breach of fiduciary duties

Remember, any breach must have resulted in a measurable loss to rise to the level of professional negligence.

Frequent examples of professional negligence we deal with involve a certain approach to a litigation dispute that was always flawed and should have been identified as flawed earlier (but was missed).

Other common examples include cases where high-risk property transactions haven’t been identified, leading to a loss for the investor.

Do I Have Grounds To Make a Professional Negligence Claim?

Under UK law, professional negligence claims can be pursued on contractual, statutory, or tortious grounds.

It’s highly likely that a contract — either written, verbal, or implied — exists between you and any professional individual or company you’ve hired to perform a service.

Professional negligence claims involving a breach of duty of care established by a contract — or a specific breach of the terms of an agreement — are more straightforward to pursue than claims of liability under tort.

You may be able to make a successful professional negligence claim if the following grounds exist:

Legal duty of care is established (contractual and/or tortious)
Duty of care has been breached
Damages occurred as a result of the misconduct
The injury or harm you’ve suffered was “reasonably” foreseeable by the professional individual or company
Your losses are recoverable

Errors and “bad service” alone do not necessarily constitute negligence.

The aim of litigation is to compensate you for the loss and damages you have suffered — not to compensate you for bad service.

Consumer-based complaints services may be better suited to instances where bad service has caused you damages rather than litigation.

The Court will apply a “reasonable man” test to assess if the advice or service you received falls within the bounds of professional conduct by comparable providers in the relevant industry.

Negligence will only be found to have occurred if you’ve received advice or service that fails to meet a “reasonable” level of care.

Time Limits

There are exceptions, but the statutory time limits in most professional negligence claims (contract or tort) are:

6 years from when a contract was breached
6 years from when the negligent act or omission took place

If you weren’t aware that you suffered damages until after the initial six-year time limit has elapsed, you may be eligible for a secondary limitation period.

But it’s not indefinite.

Whether your claim is tortious or contractual (or both), a statutory limit of 15 years from when the negligent act occurred will likely apply. This final cut-off is often referred to as the “longstop.”

How Much Can I Claim?

There is no statutory limit on how much the courts can award the injured party as compensation for damages in a professional negligence claim.

However, it’s essential to keep in mind that damages are intended to be compensatory — not punitive.

If a claim is successful, the court will attempt to restore you or your company to the position you were in before the negligent act or omission took place.

In many instances, this is not possible — the loss of a limb in a medical malpractice case being a prime example.

Typically, the court will determine a monetary amount to compensate the injured party for losses suffered — financial or otherwise.

Pre-Action Protocol

There is a government pre-action protocol in place that seeks to streamline the process of professional negligence claims.

The construction and healthcare professions have their own unique protocols.

The pre-action protocol is a form of alternative dispute resolution that promotes the settlement of professional negligence claims before they go to court.

If your dispute is with one of the following professions (or others besides construction and medical), you must follow the pre-action protocol before you can take your claim to court.

Solicitors
Accountants
Financial advisers
Surveyors
Banks

The protocol requires a series of notices and letters to be sent before court proceedings can commence.

We are happy to advise you on compliance with the pre-action protocols for professional negligence — whether you’re the injured party or subject to a claim.

Types of Professional Negligence We Can Assist With

Helix Law’s expert commercial litigation team has significant experience nationwide acting in a wide range of professional negligence claims.

We specialise in commercial, property and construction-related litigation, including negligence.

Often, we are instructed where something has gone catastrophically wrong.

For example, you find out that you do not own a property or investment you paid for, or a significant sum is not secured when you understood it should have been

Or perhaps risks and issues were not explained to you, and if they had been, you would never have gone ahead.

As noted previously, we don’t act in medical malpractice or medical negligence claims such as road traffic accidents.

Helix Law specialises in commercial, property, and construction-related failures.

Need Help With A Professional Negligence Claim?

If you feel that you or your business has been a victim of professional negligence, Helix Law can help.

We handle professional negligence claims for individuals and companies nationwide and have the know-how to achieve a successful outcome.

Contact Helix Law today. We aim to respond to all queries in less than an hour.

Outstanding Reviews
from Real Business People

Excellent support and advice at very reasonable cost. They would definitely be my first port of call if I ever had a similar problem, and I would highly recommend. They saved me thousands and untold stress and worry.

Google review

Brendan and the Staff at Helix Law handled a particularly difficult case for us, they provided an excellent service and I can highly recommend using this company

Very useful getting counsel from Sam on a tricky matter – he certainly knew his stuff. 🙂 Matter successfully handled, and i would not hesitate to use Helix Law again or indeed recommend.

Very swift response and helpful advice by Alex Cook, most importantly this is clearly a business with integrity – would definitely recommend!

I spoke at length with their partner Alex Cook about a very complicated litigation case. He was very helpful and quite candid with his advice. I have worked with many lawyers some in the top 500 listings, but found him to be very knowledgable and competent,I personally wouldn’t have any hesitation in recommending him .