When the advice wasn’t right

In situations where professional advice is necessary, it’s essential that the advice received is correct and can be relied upon to achieve your desired outcome. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case and the service provided can sometimes fall below what was agreed.

If you have received inaccurate or inappropriate advice from a professional who owed you a duty of care which has led to you suffering financial loss and damage, and you can show that if you had been correctly advised you would have acted differently, you may have a claim against an advisor. Our team is well placed to support you in resolving such a dispute. We can pursue a claim against your former advisor on your behalf and if appropriate, help you mitigate any losses in the underlying issue.

Our services

We tailor our services to provide support across various areas of practices.

Solicitors and barristers

We can support you in bringing claims against solicitors and barristers where they have given negligent advice which has led to serious financial consequences for you. This could include any aspect of the work that you have instructed them to carry out, such as dispute handling or transactional matters.

We are experienced in advising on claims against legal professionals who have made an error when providing advice about wills, trusts and powers of attorney, settling a claim without giving comprehensive advice, or missing a court or statutory deadline.

Our specialist lawyers also advise on claims against legal professionals who have acted negligently when providing advice in the course of a property transaction. For example, where a title hasn’t been properly investigated, restrictions haven’t been properly recorded on the title post completion, break notices haven’t been properly served, or an error has occurred when calculating and submitting an incorrect return in relation to tax due on the purchase of a property.

Accountants and financial advisors

We can help you bring claims against accountants and other financial advisors who have given negligent tax or financial advice.

This includes situations where you’ve been mis-sold financial products or improperly advised on the likely consequences of a transaction which has transpired to be incorrect and led to you or your business suffering loss. For example, a penalty or increase in what is owing to HMRC on the sale of a business or lifetime tax planning.

We can also advise on pursuing complaints with the Financial Ombudsman Service as well as negligent client care procedures, including failures to provide you with cost updates, making decisions without your mandate or knowledge, or failures to meet key deadlines.

Architects, quantity surveyors and other construction professionals

The input of professional advisors is absolutely key to project development and construction. We assist with claims against advisors including architects, quantity surveyors, engineers, fire safety advisors, building surveyors, project managers and consultants when things go wrong.

Claims against design and build contractors that we deal with also often share many similarities with more ‘pure’ professional negligence claims, and early intervention with specialist advice can be vital.

Property valuers, land agents and agricultural specialists

We are able to advise on claims against valuers and surveyors where property and land has been mis-valued and this has impacted you in relation to a wider transaction, or you have sought input from a land agent or other specialist and still not been properly advised.

Such situations might involve you seeking expert advice in relation to title investigation, the structure or condition of a property, or an option agreement over land which you are considering for development. You might have relied on this advice to borrow money and it later comes to light that there are issues with the valuation.

Alternatively, you might find yourself in a situation where, even after seeking advice, the significance of a tenancy hasn’t been properly identified and negligent advice has been given concerning end of tenancy matters such as dilapidations claims by the landlord and improvements claims by the tenant, or succession rights on the death of a tenant.

Professional executors, administrators and trustees

We regularly advise clients who have concerns about serious mismanagement of an estate or trust, including claims where loss has been caused as a consequence of a professional’s negligence. This could include being given poor advice on investments or a failure to gather in estate assets.

Why choose Foot Anstey?

Our breadth of knowledge means that our team of specialist lawyers advise on claims against and act for a variety of different professional advisors including solicitors, accountants and trustees, as well as property professionals such as surveyors, land agents and architects.

Many of the claims we advise on involve poorly drafted documents or loss arising as a result of inaccurate and/or unsuitable advice. Our knowledge of different sectors as well as our professional negligence experience can help clients obtain the best result.

Our people

We have expertise in acting for both claimants and defendants and can support you in all stages of the dispute resolution process. This may include engaging with other parties in pre-action correspondence, advising on alternative dispute resolution procedures including mediation, or dealing with court or arbitration proceedings.

We always keep a strong focus on the cost/benefit analysis and depending on your circumstances and the facts of the dispute, we can also discuss a range of funding options which may be suitable, including conditional fee agreements.

Meet our team

Key contacts

PNLA membership

We are a member of the Professional Negligence Lawyers Association. The PNLA is an association formed to help resolve disputes that arise between professionals and their clients.

pnla

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