Professional Negligence

Accountant's negligence

Mr Y instructed Lewis-Simler (accountants) to advise him about the funding of a commercial property investment. As a result of the accountant's negligent advice, Mr Y could not offset the interest he paid on the mortgage against the rental income he received, with the result that he paid a lot more tax than he would have been liable for had he been correctly advised. We successfully sued the accountant for the tax that had been unnecessarily paid.

Bank's negligence

The B family gave a trusted family friend a power of attorney over their bank account with Barclays. The "friend" misused the account for his own benefit not only spending all their money but also misspent further money (about £500,000) that he had borrowed from the Bank in their name. We successfully sued the Bank, who cleared the debt and repaid £100,000 to our clients.

The B Family

Challenging your own solicitor's bill

I Ltd instructed Beachcroft Wansbroughs in a property/development scheme. The solicitors agreed to cap their costs for the legal work. Unfortunately that agreement was subsequently overlooked by the solicitors who charged over four times as much as the agreed maximum fee. We pursued a Solicitors Act assessment of the solicitors' costs and obtained a refund of almost £100,000 plus costs for the client.

I Ltd

Commercial Property solicitor's negligence in missing time limit resulting in loss of premises

The Tower Theatre had leased theatre premises in Canonbury Tower continuously since 1952. The solicitors dealing with the last lease renewals acted for free but unfortunately failed to make the necessary application to court in time in order to ensure that the Tower Theatre continued to have the right to security of tenure and a new lease. As a consequence the Landlords were able to force the Tower Theatre to vacate its premises in 2003. We successfully sued Gregory Rowcliffe Milners for the cost of acquiring alternative theatre premises and recovered £2,020,000 for our client. This is believed to be one of the largest successful claims ever made against a solicitor who was acting 'pro bono' (without charge to the client).

The Tower Theatre

Commercial Property solicitor's negligent drafting of lease resulting in unwanted premises

Mr and Mrs V instructed Lovegrove & Eliot solicitors in connection with the assignment of a 10 year lease of business premises. They decided on these particular premises because the lease contained a break clause which meant that they could move in the fifth year. Unfortunately, their solicitors failed to tell them that the break clause was only operable by the original tenant (from whom they took the assignment) and when they moved premises they could not get out of the lease and they were therefore forced to pay rent on two buildings instead of one. If they had been properly advised they would not have taken the premises. We successfully sued their solicitors and recovered £225,000 plus costs for Mr & Mrs V in respect of the wasted rent they had to pay for the now unwanted offices.

Mr & Mrs V

Conveyancing solicitor's negligence advice about size of property being purchased

Mr and Mrs P bought their first home, thinking that they would be owning the entire back garden as well as the ground floor flat. Their conveyancing solicitors, Marsons, did not explain to them that this was not the case. Mr and Mrs P later discovered that they owned only a small part of their back garden, and that their neighbour in the flat above owned the rest of the garden. As a result they paid more for their flat than it was worth. We pursued their former solicitors and won Mr and Mrs P damages for the loss of value to their home.

Mr & Mrs P

Conveyancing solicitor's negligence advice about planning permission

Mr and Mrs S instructed Curwens Solicitors to do the conveyancing on the purchase of their first home in January 2005. Following completion of the purchase Mr and Mrs S were contacted by the Local Authority’s planning department who informed them that prior to their ownership of the property, their garden had been extended onto green belt land without planning permission. Mr and Mrs S applied for retrospective planning permission but their application was unsuccessful.

Mr and Mrs S approached us to investigate a claim against their former solicitors in relation to the advice given to them during the conveyancing process. We made a claim on the basis that the checks undertaken throughout the conveyancing process were inadequate and that the Claimants were not properly advised about the status of the rear part of the garden. This meant that the property was worth less than the price they paid for it. We successfully recovered damages and costs on behalf of Mr and Mrs S to reflect the expense to which they had been put to rectify the problem and the effect on the value of their property.

Mr and Mrs S v Curwens

Estate agent's negligence

Mr Y, resident in America, owned a flat in West London which he decided to rent out. He instructed Sinton Andrews estate agents to who promised a complete management service which would include finding a suitable tenant, obtaining the necessary references and ensuring that the rent was paid in full. In fact, Sinton Andrews failed to obtain proper references (or check the false references provided by the tenant) and the tenant failed to pay the rent. Mr Y incurred significant costs in trying to evict the tenant. We were successful in recovering from the negligent estate agent the unpaid rent and the costs Mr Y incurred in evicting the tenant.

Personal Injury solicitor's negligence in missing time limit

Mr M suffered serious knee injuries as a result of a car accident. He instructed Personal Injury solicitors Lucas & Co to act in his injury claim. Lucas & Co failed to issue proceedings within the three year time limit from the date of his accident. Mr M therefore lost the chance to pursue his Personal Injury claim. The Defendants in the original claim had, before the claim became time barred, offered only £3,000 to Mr M to settle his claim. We acted for Mr M in his claim against Lucas & Co and succeeded in settling his case with damages of £30,000.

Mr M

Personal injury solicitors negligence causing strike out of claim

Mr and Mrs W instructed Molesworth Bright Clegg Solicitors to make a claim for personal injuries arising out of a serious road traffic accident that occurred in November 1998 in which the negligent driver was killed. Molesworth Bright Clegg issued legal proceedings against the Estate of the negligent driver in November 2001 and in January 2004 an offer of settlement was made for both claims. Mr and Mrs W were advised not to accept the offer and shortly thereafter the proceedings were struck out by the court because Molesworth Bright Clegg failed to comply with directions issued by the court. The Claimants lost their right to claim damages against the Estate of the deceased driver and to make matters worse the Court ordered that Mr and Mrs W pay the negligent driver’s insurers their legal costs. We sued Molesworth Bright Clegg and recovered the full amount of money that was paid into court by the original Defendant and all of the other costs that the Claimant’s incurred as a result of the aborted proceedings.

Within one year of the letter of claim being sent to Molesworth Bright Clegg we recovered all of the Claimant’s damages together with their legal costs.

Mr & Mrs W

Personal Injury solicitor's negligence

Mr P sustained horrific injuries to his arm as a result of a defective firework. Leigh Day & Co were instructed to act on his behalf in relation to his Personal Injury claim. Leigh Day & Co failed to appreciate that the successful prosecution of our client's claim was likely to be dependent upon our client being entitled to rely upon the Consumer Protection Act, applying to importers of defective products. They pursued the claim against the wrong party (the manufacturer of the defective firework). As a result Mr P's claim was struck out, and he was ordered to pay the other side's costs as well! We acted for him in a claim against his negligent solicitors, and succeeded in obtaining a settlement of approximately £24,500 compensation plus an agreement to pay the original Defendant's costs for our client.

Mr P

Personal Injury solicitor's negligence

Mr W was a chef on a ship when he suffered serious back injuries as a result of a falling accident, which meant that he had to retire from life at sea, and from his job. He instructed solicitors John Mohamed & Co to act in his personal injury claim. John Mohamed & Co obtained advice from a barrister, Mr Cahill, in respect of the time limit for issuing proceedings. Mr Cahill negligently advised that as the accident occurred at sea, that a two year time limit applied, and that therefore, the limitation period had already expired. Mr W consulted us about his claim, and we advised that in fact, there was a three year time limit, and not a two year time limit (which applies to collisions at sea) on his claim. As this three year time limit also expired while John Mohamed & Co were acting for Mr W, it was our case that both John Mohamed & Co and Mr Cahill were both negligent, and that Mr W therefore lost the chance to pursue his personal injury claim. We succeeded in recovering Mr W damages of £22,000 plus costs.

Mr W

Personal injury solicitor's negligence in missing time limits

Mrs W v Keith R Thompson and Co Solicitor's dishonesty.  In February 2003 Mrs W had an accident in the course of her employment and instructed solicitors to pursue a personal injury claim on her behalf. Legal proceedings against the employer were issued by Keith R Thompson & Co Solicitors in February 2006 just within the statutory limitation period. However proceedings were not served on the Defendant in time and as a result the claim was struck out. We sued Keith R Thompson & Co for damages for the loss of Mrs W’s opportunity to sue her employer and we recovered damages and costs on her behalf.

Mrs W

Solicitor's dishonesty

Mrs K deposited £100,000 with Graham Peries & Co in support of an application for a UK visa. No application for a visa was made and the money was stolen by her solicitor. In order to preserve evidence we obtained and executed a search order and successfully recovered Mrs K's money (and interest). Mrs K was one of eight clients of that particular firm on whose behalf we successfully recovered large sums over money that had been stolen.

Mrs K

Purchase of overvalued property as a result of surveyors negligence and solicitors' negligence

Our clients claimed damages from their former surveyor and conveyancing solicitor. Prior to buying three buy-to-let properties the Claimants had employed a surveyor to value the properties and a solicitor to undertake the conveyancing. After completion, it became apparent that the properties had been substantially overvalued by the surveyor. We were instructed to act for the Claimants and upon further investigation discovered that the properties were overvalued by as much as 80% and that the Claimants’ solicitors had failed to advise them that the properties had been sold for less than half the price that they were paying just a few months earlier. The solicitor also failed to advise our clients about other inconsistencies that would have alerted them to the overvaluation.

We issued proceedings against the surveyor, his employer and the Claimants' former solicitors and within two months of issuing proceedings agreed a settlement of £185,000 with two of the Defendants for the Claimants' damages and costs.

Anonymous

Wills trust and probate solicitor's negligence in failing to administer trust properly

Mrs M is an elderly lady who lives in a residential nursing home. Lewis & Dick were appointed to administer and supervise her bank accounts. However, they failed to monitor the level of funds in her account. They therefore failed to notice that they had spent all the money in her account. The law specifies that they could have applied for benefits when savings fell to £16,000. They failed to do this and not only was Mrs M left with nothing but she also owed money to her nursing home. We were successful in recovering approximately £12,500 for Mrs M.

Mrs M

Will Trust and Probate solicitor's negligent drafting of will

Mr R instructed Geoffrey Lucas Solicitors to draft his Will. Mr R had three children but was estranged from one son and instructed his solicitors that only his other two children were to benefit. Following the death of one of Mr R's children and following the death of Mr R, a drafting mistake in the Will meant that a substantial part of Mr R's estate passed to his estranged son rather than his surviving daughter, Mrs H, as Mr R had intended. As this was because of a drafting mistake by Geoffrey Lucas Mrs H then instructed England & Co Solicitors who eventually advised that an application could be made under the Administration of Justice Act 1982 to have the Will rectified. Unfortunately England & Co were also negligent because they failed to appreciate the urgency of the matter and consequently failed to issue the application for rectification within prescribed time limit of six months from the date of the grant of probate. As a result Mrs H lost the right to apply to rectify her late father's negligently drafted will. We successfully pursued solicitors' negligence claims against both firms of solicitors and recovered £45,000 for Mrs H in respect of her loss of inheritance.

Mr R