Professional Negligence and Claims for bad advice

Whilst we believe that most professional advisors adhere to the same high standards that we do at Hewetts, we know that there are cases where Clients suffer a loss at the hands of negligent or even dishonest professional advisors. If you have been let down by a professional advisor then you need to be confident that you are taking the correct steps towards putting matters right. Hewetts provides a comprehensive service for professional negligence claims and deals with disputes against many different professional advisors, including accountants, architects, insurers, financial advisers, solicitors, surveyors and tax consultants

Examples of professional negligence claims might be:

• Claims against solicitors and barristers arising from failed litigation
• Claims against surveyors for failing to properly value or identify defects with property
• Misselling of financial products such as pensions, share portfolios, endowments and with profits policies
• Claims against architects, often jointly with engineers and builders
• Negligent tax advice, in particular inheritance tax planning

Professional negligence is a complex and specialist area of law. Professionals and their insurers use large law firms with years of experience to try and defeat professional negligence claims. It is therefore important you ensure you are represented by lawyers with equivalent experience and knowledge. Our focussed approach and our ability to negotiate in highly contentious situations enable us to achieve the best results for our clients.

We provide an early assessment of the merits of your case and we are proactive and cost effective in seeking a successful resolution on your behalf. We will explore solutions to bring an early resolution to cases without the need for court proceedings. However if this is not possible we deliver focussed support, practical guidance and effective representation drawing on the whole firm’s knowledge and resource to achieve the best results for our clients.

We will thoroughly investigate your case and provide you with a realistic assessment of your case. Where necessary we will obtain expert evidence. We will then advance the claim on your behalf to the professional and his insurers and we will actively seek to negotiate a settlement of your claim without the need for court proceedings.

The professional negligence team is committed to providing you with the latest funding options and we are able to offer a variety of arrangements including privately paying fees, conditional fees and after the event insurance.

We will discuss your specific options at the outset of our instructions and we will do everything we can to assist in helping you choose the most appropriate route.

We operate a national service for professional negligence and represent people from all over England and Wales.

We offer free initial advice, regardless of whether or not you later wish to instruct us to act for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

1.   Can I sue my Accountant for bad tax advice?

It depends on the nature and circumstances of the advice.   To sue any professional whether it be a Solicitor, Accountant, Independent Financial Advisor etc it is necessary to show that the Advisor has been negligent.  A specific legal test has to be applied to establish this.

2.   The value of my claim is less than £5,000, is it worth pursuing? 

Generally no Solicitors costs are recoverable for any case taken for under £5,000.  This means that legal representation is rarely available for any such case although we will advise you on the question of the value of your claim from the outset.

3.   What do you need to do to establish whether I have a diligence claim against my advisor? 

Usually we would like to see you together with the paperwork relating to your case.  Sometimes if it inconvenient for you to come and see us we will ask that you send the documentation in the post to us so that we can provide you with some initial advice. 

4.   How much does it cost?

If we assess your case as meeting our criteria we will offer you a “no-win, no-fee” Agreement.  If your case does not meet our liability and value criteria we will advise you other funding options available.

5.   How long will it take? 

This very much depends on whether the case can be settled quickly or whether it has to proceed to Court.  If it has to proceed to Court there are a number of hurdles to overcome before a final hearing date is given.  We would be happy to discuss these things with you from the outset.

6.   Can I just chat to you on the telephone to see whether there is anything you think might be worth pursuing? 

Yes please telephone 0118 9559613 and ask to speak to Geoff Kew.

7.   I think I have been given bad employment law advice relating to redundancy, unfair dismissal, discrimination and/or a Severance Agreement, can you help me? 

Yes.  Increased number of claims are arising against firms and individuals who set them up as specialist advisors in the employment law area when in fact they are now.  Commonly these advisors are not qualified Solicitors but hold themselves out as to being legal experts.  We will be happy to discuss with you any potential claim you have as a result of an undervalue settlement.

8.   What is no-win, no-fee? 

This is an Agreement usually regulated by The Law Society who in general terms provides we do not charge you for our services if we are unable to recover compensation for you.  Full details of a no-win, no-fee Agreement will be given to you before you enter in to such an arrangement.