I have
suffered a considerable amount of stress because of receiving bad
advice from a professional I trusted. It’s also cost me a lot of
money. Can I make a claim against them?
Obviously whether or not you should make a claim depends on your
specific circumstances and you should ring one of our specialist
professional negligence solicitors as soon as possible so we can
advise you. If you do pursue your claim, then there are a number of
steps we need to take before the case can proceed. We first need to
make a thorough investigation of the evidence and send a detailed
letter setting this out. Sometimes we will also need to speak to
experts who can advise on specific details of the claim – for
example, if your claim relates to your property then we may need to
speak to a property expert. The professional you are making the
claim against will normally pass the letter to their insurers and
must respond within a set time limit. Often claims will be settled
at this stage if they admit that they made a mistake or were partly
to blame. If not, then your next option is to take them to court
and we will talk this through with you at the time.
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How long will it take?
Each case is different and this means it is
hard to predict how long it will take to reach a settlement. Things
which can influence the timescale include how long it takes to
gather the evidence, whether experts are needed to comment on
particular aspects, and the approach taken by the professionals and
their insurers. We would normally expect it to take around six
months to send out the letter of claim and receive a response. If
the case then proceeds to court then the timescale can be more
drawn out.
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How much will it cost to make a
claim?
At Hodge Jones & Allen we offer clients a
variety of funding arrangements. These include private funding,
conditional fee arrangements (also known as ‘no win, no fee’),
after the event insurance and, depending on your circumstances,
public funding. Of course, even if you were to fund your claim
privately, if you are successful then you will normally be awarded
costs by the court. This means the negligent professional will
normally be obliged to pay the majority of your legal costs as well
as compensation.
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I’ve only just discovered the true extent of the
problems caused by professional incompetence. Is there a time limit
for bringing a claim?
There are time limits for making professional
negligence claims but these vary. If you think you might want to
make a claim then you should contact us as soon as possible to
ensure that you are within the time limits for your type of case.
However, you may not have realised the full scale of your financial
loss until some time after you received the poor advice. If this is
the case then you may still be able to make a claim but, again, you
should come and talk to us urgently.
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