Claims Against Professionals - A Summary of Case Studies

Please find below a summary of recent case studies where our team has assisted Clients when they have suffered from financial loss to the negligence of a trusted professional.

Solicitors  – commercial transactions

An area of increasing activity for our team in recent years has been claims against solicitors relating to the conduct of commercial transactions, such as company sales. 

As an example, we recovered multi-million-pound damages for clients in a claim against solicitors who had acted for them in the sale of their company.  The claim concerned allegations of breaches of confidentiality, misleading advice, and misconduct in the conduct of the sale.  The court found that those breaches had led the clients to proceed with the sale as a result of which they suffered substantial losses. For more information on this case please click here.

Solicitors –  wills

Solicitors can be held to owe a duty to third parties for whom they do not act if it is foreseeable that negligence by the solicitors will cause loss to that third party.

We have advised many clients in claims arising from a solicitor’s alleged failure to follow instructions in the preparation and execution of a will.   We recently recovered substantial damages for a client who had been intended to be the beneficiary of a high-value property under a will which solicitors were instructed to prepare but failed to draw up and arrange the execution of, before the death of the owner of the property. 

Solicitors – negligent conduct of litigation

We are regularly instructed to advise clients who believe that their former solicitors have been negligent in dealing with a litigation matter.  The successful conduct of such claims will often depend upon a careful assessment of the value of the chance which the client lost in the unsuccessful outcome of the previous case.

Particular areas in which our team regularly acts for clients in this type of claim include the under-settlement of high-value personal injury and clinical negligence claims and claims where solicitors have failed to advise clients to issue court proceedings before the limitation date for bringing a claim.

Accountants – negligent tax advice

We successfully brought a claim for a client against their former accountants/ auditors, who had failed to give the client proper advice about the VAT position of the client’s business, and its requirements in respect of registration for VAT.  The client had been ordered to pay substantial penalties to HMRC as a result of incorrect VAT registration, which we fully recovered for the clients in the claim.

Financial advisors – inappropriate investment advice

We recovered substantial damages for a client against financial advisors who had advised the client to transfer high value, safe, investments, into an unsuitable alternative product invested with a bank which subsequently went into liquidation.

For further information on Professional Negligence claims, please contact Sophie Thomas on 01792 525 441 or via email on sophie.thomas@jcpsolicitors.co.uk.