Compensation
In cases of solicitors professional negligence, if the court upholds a negligence claim, they have the power to award unlimited compensation and make a finding of legal liability. The court will not usually give compensation for distress and inconvenience caused by the professional negligence itself. If the case relates to a personal injury claim, however, the compensation will include elements relating to that personal injury claim i.e. elements for pain, suffering and loss of amenity resulting from the injury as well as loss of earnings, medical expenses and care costs.
In cases of poor service complaints, if the complaint is upheld and the Legal Complaints Service (LCS) decides that you suffered expense, distress or inconvenience, they can award you compensation of up to £15,000. The Solicitors Regulation Authority has a compensation fund from which grants are made in cases of professional misconduct. The SRA has the power to award grants of up to £1 million.
Before you send a complaint to the LCS you should first of all write a letter of complaint to the solicitor concerned, and allow them at least 28 days to respond. If you do not receive a response within this time, or are unsatisfied with the response that they give you, you should then contact the LCS. There are strict time limits for this process. The LCS must receive your complaint within 6 months of the completion of the solicitor’s work, within 6 months of the date you received the response from your solicitor, or within 6 months of finding out that there was a problem. Similar time limits apply in cases of professional misconduct.
The time limits for making a claim are laid down in the Limitation Act 1980. For cases of professional negligence, the limitation rules are quite complex. The basic rule is that you have 6 years to issue court proceedings from the date that your solicitor was negligent or from the date that you suffered loss. This means that if you are claiming against a solicitor who failed to issue proceedings for a personal injury claim within the 3 year time limit, you then in fact have 9 years from the time of your injury to make a claim against your solicitor. Claims can sometimes take a long time to resolve, but as long as the claim is initiated within the time limit, it can be pursued, no matter how long it takes to reach a conclusion.
If you did not become aware of your solicitor’s negligence until after the negligence occurred, you will be allowed to make a claim up to 3 years after the date you discovered the negligence, or if the negligence was deliberately concealed you will have 6 years to make your claim starting from the time that the negligence became apparent.
In some cases it may be that both poor service and negligence have occurred. In which case you will have to decide how best to pursue your claim, either by making a complaint to the LCS or by making a claim for professional negligence through the courts. You will not be able to claim compensation twice for the same losses. 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.
