We understand that some people like as little involvement as possible, and some like to be involved as much as possible. We will be guided by you as to how involved you would like to be in your claim whilst ensuring that you are always kept fully up to date.

If the prmary limitation period has expired but you had not realised your professional had been negligent, you have three years from the date that you first knew this or the date that you ought to have known. This is the secondary limitation period.

There is however, a 15 year longstop period. You cannot bring a claim after 15 years of the negligence or loss, regardless of whether you knew about the negligence.

However, the Professional Negligence Pre-Action Protocol applies to the majority of professional negligence claims. This protocol governs the conduct of the parties in the initial stages of the claim, for example, after we have sent a Letter of Claim to the Defendant, they have 21 days to acknowledge it and then 3 months after that to respond.

Keeping this in mind, and the time it takes to investigate the claim, gather any expert evidence and take any other steps that may be required, the initial stages of the claim can take between 6 and 12 months.

If the matter proceeds to trial, this can take in excess of 2 years although very few claims reach this stage.

"No Win, No Fee"

If we believe that your claim has reasonable prospects of success we can offer to work on a “No Win, No Fee” basis - also known as a Conditional Fee Agreement. If we are not successful in recovering damages on your claim, we do not get paid for the work that we have done.

Because of this risk, we are entitled to charge a Success Fee, or uplift, on our fees If we recover damages for you. The success fee will be deducted from your damages.

There will be other costs incurred as your claim progresses. Examples are, Court Fees, Expert fees and Barristers fees, these are known as disbursements.

We can usually obtain an insurance policy on your behalf to cover your liability for your opponent's costs should your claim fail. 

Before the Event Insurances

Some insurance policies include cover for Legal Expenses; the insurance provider will be liable to pay some or all of your costs in the claim. It is important that you check whether are hold a policy which offers this cover, the provider will only offer to cover your legal expenses if they have agreed to do so at the start of your claim.

Private Paying Clients

It is, of course, possible for you to pay our fees privately. If you were to instruct us on this basis, we would provide you with a breakdown of our charge out rates.  

If you have issues with your solicitor and they have not been resolved through the initial complaint process, you are entitled to complain to the Legal Ombudsman, http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/

If your problems relate to an accountant or financial advisor and your complaint remains unresolved, you can complain to the Financial Services Ombudsman. http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

Most professionals are regulated by a professional body.  In the event that you do have a complaint which has not been resolved by the professional you should conduct some research into any regulatory body to whom you should address your complaint.

1. Did the professional owe you a duty of care? Where you are an individual relying upon the services of a professional, it is usually clear that you are owed a duty of care.
2. Did the professional breach this duty of care?:The service you received must fall below the standard of what would be expected of a reasonably competent professional working in the same field.
3. Did professional’s breach of duty cause you a loss? You must have suffered a loss and this must be a direct result of the professional’s negligence.

You can do this by calling any of our offices, or by making an enquiry using our contact form.

• Solicitors
• Barristers
• Conveyancers
• Surveyors
• Will writers
• Architects
• Builders
• Accountants
• Financial Advisors
• Insurance Brokers
• Insurance Companies
• Local Education Authorities