Professional Negligence Claims
PERSONAL INJURY CLAIMS - SOLICITORS PROFESSIONAL NEGLIGENCE
If you think that your solicitor has acted negligently, you may be able to make a claim against them. It is not always the case, though, that if your solicitor does something wrong, it automatically becomes the basis for a professional negligence claim. Complaints about solicitors fall into three different categories: poor service complaints, professional misconduct complaints and professional negligence claims.
Poor service complaints are handled by the Legal Complaints Service (LCS). The LCS is part of the Law Society but operates independently as a complaints handling body. You can make a complaint about poor service from your solicitor if, for example, they have not done as you instructed, caused unreasonable delays, given inaccurate or incomplete information, failed to reply to correspondence, or not given accurate information about the likely costs of your case.
If the LCS believes that professional misconduct has occurred, they will refer the case to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), which deals with this type of complaint. If your solicitor fails to act in accordance with the Solicitors’ Code of Conduct, they may be guilty of professional misconduct. Examples of this would be keeping money that belongs to you, acting for a client whose interests conflict with yours, releasing confidential information about you without your consent, or discriminating against you on the basis of race, creed, age, disability, gender or sexuality.
Professional negligence claims must be dealt with by the courts. Professional negligence is deemed to have occurred when your solicitor fails to take the reasonable care that a solicitor would normally have taken in similar circumstance, or if your solicitor acts in a way that a solicitor would not normally act in similar circumstances.
Professional negligence can occur if say, your solicitor fails to issue or serve your claim on the defendants within the time limits allowed by the court. In addition, solicitors sometimes issue proceedings against the wrong defendant, or fail to notice a specific type of claim that could have been made. In other cases clients have been wrongly advised to settle when they could in fact have received a larger sum.
If you you feel your existing solicitor has not handled your case properly, we may be able to help you claim the compensation to which you are entitled.
MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE (CLINICAL NEGLIGENCE)
Although every year huge numbers of people are treated by healthcare professionals, there are cases where things go wrong.
We have experience in dealing with claims against GP’s and Hospitals for, amongst other things, incorrect diagnosis, negligent treatment and failure to perform surgery to an acceptable standard.
