Professional Negligence

When paying for professional services, you are entitled to expect that they are provided with due care and competency. If you suspect you may have received poor advice or other services from a professional, our expert professional dispute resolution lawyers can help you understand your options and guide you through the process of making a claim.

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Key contacts

Elizabeth Beatty

Partner, Joint Head of In-House Lawyer Services

Frank, no-nonsense advice – that’s what you can expect when you engage my services. When you need help with a dispute, I’ll analyse the evidence, assess your objectives and develop a detailed strategy that will help you to get the best outcome.

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Claire Holford

Partner, Head of International

Letting a dispute go on for too long is costly, stressful and can be detrimental to your business and personal time. As a dispute problem solver, the earlier I can be involved in your dispute the quicker I can apply litigation strategy to try and find a resolution.

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Professional negligence legal services

We understand that pursuing claims against professionals, who are often long-standing and trusted advisors, can be stressful and inconvenient. However, mistakes do happen, and the law entitles you to seek recovery of your resulting losses. Our team is here to make that recovery process as straight forward as possible.

We routinely represent our clients in bringing claims against various professionals, including:

  • Architects
  • Accountants
  • Barristers
  • Environmental consultants
  • Financial advisors
  • Insurance brokers
  • IT professionals
  • Solicitors
  • Surveyors.

What can we help with?

We can guide you through the claim/recovery process which may include considering adjudication, mediation and ombudsman services as alternative forms of dispute resolution (“ADR”), sourcing and preserving required documents, and calculating and mitigating any financial losses.

Full-service expertise

HCR works closely with sectors where professional negligence claims commonly arise, including healthcare, property, legal, financial services, IT, and Construction. This full-service expertise means we understand the legal frameworks in different industries and can provide effective, tailored advice to clients.

Funding your professional negligence claim

The significant costs and risk of pursuing a professional negligence claim can often be barriers to bringing these claims and recovering losses from professionals who have breached their duty of care to you.

We have an excellent reputation in the market working closely with specialist brokers, insurers, and funders to procure insurance and funding. We are willing to be flexible and creative to help our clients bring these claims, to help our clients make informed decisions and manage the risks as much as possible.

To help mitigate the risks and costs to afford you peace of mind, HCR offers clients a variety of funding solutions.

Funding routes

  • Private funding agreements
  • Fixed fees for agreed specific works
  • Conditional fee agreements whereby a portion or all of our fees is contingent on the successful outcome of your case, often known as no win reduced fee or no win no fee agreements
  • Damages based agreements whereby a portion or all of our fees is contingent on the successful outcome of your case and is tied to an agreed percentage of what you recover from your opponent
  • Securing insurance to cover the professional’s legal costs if you proceed and lose with your claim
  • Third party litigation funding whereby a funder finances the costs of pursuing your claim and is only paid on the successful outcome of your case.

Professional negligence FAQs

Professional negligence is where a professional whose services you have engaged fails to perform their responsibilities to the required standard and breaches their duty of care.

A claim can be based on any of the following:

  • Breach of a contractual term
  • Breach of a duty of care
  • Breach of fiduciary duty
  • Breach of statutory duty.

Professional negligence claims can be brought by the professional’s client or a third party, depending on the circumstances.

You will first need to ascertain whether you have grounds for a professional negligence claim, rather than following the professional complaints procedure or referring the matter to the relevant Ombudsman or regulator. It is now a legal requirement to consider adjudication – a form of alternative dispute resolution – at an early stage of the proceedings. We will then support you to:

  • Retain and preserve any relevant documents to support your claim
  • Gather evidence of any financial losses caused as a result of the alleged negligence
  • Prove that you have mitigated your losses insofar as possible
  • Consider the limitation period for your claim.

Six years from the date on which the negligence happened is the basic limitation period for professional negligence claims. On occasion, we can explore whether the limitation period can be extended.

If there is evidence that you have suffered financial losses as a result of professional negligence, then your lawyer will seek to regain these losses as part of your claim.

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Hear what our clients say about us

Elizabeth Beatty is a very experienced, very well-rounded lawyer. She is a great strategist and gives straightforward and realistic advice.

Client testimonial Legal 500 2025

I am extremely appreciative of the outstanding legal representation provided by Claire. Her expertise in handling my professional negligence matter was evident throughout the entire process. Not only was she highly professional and knowledgeable, but she was also very kind and understanding. She skilfully navigated the complexities of the case, always keeping me informed and addressing my concerns.

What impresses me the most was her honesty and level-headedness – she never made unrealistic promises, but instead provided a clear and accurate assessment of the situation and was careful to manage expectations. Her unwavering support and genuine care made a difficult time much more manageable. I wholeheartedly recommend her to anyone seeking legal representation.

Client Professional Negligence Claim

Over a week now since my story with you has been finalised, and with that I would like to say how amazing you were. HCR are very lucky to have you.

Your professionalism was outstanding, your ability to recall vital information, and depth of knowledge to my case was exemplary.

I cannot speak highly enough of you, and of course your paralegal, Simona, who quietly also knew everything. Enormous thanks for getting me through my story.

Client Professional Negligence Dispute

We have worked with Elizabeth Beatty for over 15 years.  During this time she has provided excellent legal support and is always easy to contact and quick to respond to any of our legal requirements. Her focus has been on getting to know us and our business and providing legal advice within this commercial context.

She always provides frank advice and manages our expectations from the outset on the achievable objectives and costs. A very professional and approachable person.

Vim Savani, Finance Director & Company Secretary, Gemco Equipment Ltd 

Dispute Resolution – Elizabeth Beatty

How can we help you?