Professional Negligence

Professional negligence may have occurred "when a person is in breach of a duty of care in the course of their professional activities, which consequently results in some form of damage to the claimant." medical negligence

If you believe that your financial advisor, dentist, or solicitor has acted improperly, it does not follow that you can make a claim for professional negligence against them. If you have contracted the services of a professional, they owed you a duty of care. All providers of a service under contract have a duty to provide the service with due skill and diligence – and if there is no specified completion date – within a reasonable time. If the standard of work provided is less than you would have reasonably expected, the professional may have breached that duty of care. If that breach has caused you a financial loss, in that you are worse off as a result of the service they provided, then you may have a case for professional negligence. Professionals who are at risk of these claims include:

Accountants
Architects
Barristers
Dentists and other Medical Professionals
Doctors
Engineers
Financial Service Advisers
Solicitors
Surveyors and Property Valuation Experts

If you are simply disappointed by a service you have received, you should make a complaint as appropriate to the professional concerned. You should start by making the complaint directly to the professional who provided the service, and then if the response is unsatisfactory, you should take the matter to an independent complaints scheme that operates in the professional's field of expertise. In the financial sector, these are the Financial Ombudsman Service, the Pensions Ombudsman, The Pensions Advisory Service, and the Finance & Leasing Association Arbitration Scheme. If your complaint is against a solicitor, the Legal Complaints Service (LCS) deals with accusations of poor service and cases of professional misconduct, although the latter will then be referred to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Your financial advisor should be governed by the Financial Service Authority's (FSA) standards, or the code by any other professional membership. Your solicitor is governed by the Solicitors' Code of Conduct. Failure to follow these guidelines may render the professional guilty of professional misconduct, such as revealing confidential information without your consent or making any discrimination against you on the basis of race, creed, age, disability, gender or sexuality. Dissatisfied customers who try to resolve their dispute through these channels but fail to achieve a result often simply abandon the matter. However, there are legal advisors who specialise in professional negligence cases who will be able to investigate your claim. Professional negligence is considered to have occurred if the professional fails to take the reasonable care that is expected of them, or if they act in a way that they should not normally have acted in similar circumstances, and in these cases, the matter must go before the courts. Examples of professional negligence include: