Professional Negligence Law Firm

Professional Negligence Lawyers

Professional negligence resolution for start-ups, scale-ups and the entrepreneurially spirited

Professionals that provide services are expected to do so with a required degree of skill and case. Sometimes, where work falls below a reasonable level of skill and care, and damage has resulted then recompense can be sought. This is when it’s time to seek expert advice from professional negligence solicitors.

We have experience in both pursuing damages and defending professionals in a broad range of sectors, including solicitors, surveyors, accountants, financial advisors, engineers, architects and many more.

Experienced professional negligence solicitors

We have experience in a wide range of matters including the following:

Legal Considerations

Contract or Tort?

Professional negligence is primarily a tortious claim founded on a duty to take reasonable care, however there is often a contractual element also, even if via implied term or through operation of statute.

Duty Required

To have a viable claim for professional negligence you need to establish that a duty of care or fiduciary/statutory duty exists, which has been breached and that breach caused the claimant to suffer recoverable loss.

Demonstrable Loss

You must demonstrate that the loss was directly caused by the negligence; i.e. ‘but for’ the action complained of would the damage still have resulted?

Foreseeable Loss

The question to consider is whether the loss was reasonably foreseeable and not too remote. This means the loss cannot have been caused by an intervening act of a third party, and was reasonably within the contemplation of the parties at the time of contracting, otherwise the chain of causation is broken.

Pre-Action Protocol

In the event that a claim is issued, then the parties must comply with the Professional Negligence Pre-Action Protocol, which encourages early cooperation between parties and the exchange of information to attempt to resolve without recourse to court proceedings.

Find out how our professional negligence solicitors can help with disputes.

Other factors to Consider

Other factors to Consider

Company buyback of shares and subsequent cancellation.  This can be a useful route provided 75% of the shareholders will consent as the Company meets the acquisition cost; however it must have sufficient surplus cash.

If a founder is looking to step aside then perhaps a reorganisation can assist with the variation of rights but retention of financial reward.

An anti-embarrassment clause can operate effectively in any settlement agreement, with the sale price for shares being uplifted if an event such as a sale of the business occurs or funding is received subsequent to exit.

A key to the resolution of a dispute is often an independent valuation of the relevant shareholding.  To secure this the parties will need to determine the basis of the valuation.

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