Professional negligence

Specialist professional negligence solicitors

Businesses and individuals depend on their professional advisors to protect them from specialist areas of business and personal risk. But when a professional fails to protect their interests, they can suffer severe financial harm.

Professional negligence claims can arise from simple administrative errors, technical and legal errors or even a wilful disregard for a client’s best interests; and can result in significant financial losses, wasted costs, hours of management time and considerable personal distress.

Clarke Willmott has a specialist professional negligence team within its Litigation Division, helping people and organisations of all sizes to recover these losses. It is one of the largest claimant teams outside London.

We act for major financial institutions, pension funds, construction companies, the agricultural sector, Local Authorities, the Crown Estate, the FSCS, private clients, unions, professional organisations, listed companies, private companies, property management companies, engineering companies, law firms, insolvency practitioners, health trusts.

How we can help

We advise our clients at all stages of professional negligence disputes and employ the dispute resolution methods that afford them the greatest certainty of cost, timing and outcome. This includes:

• Analysing the role of specialist professional advice in business and personal decisions in order to assess the basis for claims
• Assessing the case for negligence, including assessing claims of contributory negligence
• Assessing the compliance of professionals to the demands of their regulatory bodies and national/EU regulators
• Providing an early, detailed evaluation of the merits of a claim and pragmatic advice on the most effective strategy for resolution
• Pursuing Pre-action Protocols to explore the possibilities of resolving disputes before proceedings are issued and preventing the abuse of those protocols by defendants.
• Advising on insurance coverage issues where insurers attempt to avoid cover.
• Advising on other ancillary issues arising out of the Limitation Act 1980, Third Party Rights Against Insurers Act 1930, Civil Contributions Act 1978.
• When cases do reach the courts, we ensure that our clients have the best chance of a positive outcome. And we have a strong track record of success in the courts.

Why choose Clarke Willmott for professional negligence claims

The success and reputation of our professional negligence practice derives from:

• The depth and breadth of our experience and our ability to draw on a wide range of specialist disciplines from across the firm
• A thorough understanding of the tactics deployed by the professional indemnity insurance companies that control the defence of claims
• Ability to understand and pursue our clients’ commercial objectives
• Network of working relationships with independent expert witnesses and specialist barristers
• Open and pragmatic advice about how to bring a claim to an early resolution with the right result.
• Innovative approach to cost effective management and funding of disputes without compromising quality.
• A willingness to underwrite our advice with our fees. Where appropriate, we will offer conditional fee arrangements to clients where we advise that their claim should be pursued.

We also pride ourselves on the fact that we are often instructed to assume conduct of claims from other firms where clients have become dissatisfied. We have an impressive record of ‘turn arounds’ where we have applied our specialist experience to rescue claims that were failing before they came to us.

Recommendations

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"This team is just head and shoulders above the rest."
The Legal 500 2022

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"They provide a great service."
Chambers UK 2022

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"This was my first experience needing a solicitor and I found the practice very helpful in explaining the process."
The Legal 500 2022

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"Thorough, consistent and technically sound."
Chambers UK 2021

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"The team is very focused on getting the right outcome for the client. They don’t posture, they are down to earth and get the job done."
The Legal 500 2021

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"This is a high quality outfit outside of London but engaged in heavy commercial and professional negligence litigation."
The Legal 500 2021

Contact a professional negligence solicitor today

Our specialist professional negligence solicitors based in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, London, Manchester, Southampton and Taunton, are ready to discuss your case. Call for a free initial consultation today on 0800 652 8025 or get in touch online.