If you feel as though you have been the victim of professional negligence, then you might have a lot of questions, one of them being whether or not you should hire a solicitor. Professional negligence usually means that someone has failed to perform their duty to the standard required and, in turn, has caused you loss. A professional negligence claim be made against an architect, accountant, solicitor, estate agent or even insurance broker.

Hiring a Professional Negligence Solicitor Based on Factual Causation

There’s no grading system when it comes to breach of duty. The professional in question will have either provided reasonable care, or they won’t have. If the defendant has failed to provide reasonable care, it’s then important to show that their negligence has resulted in loss.

Causation can be broken down into two parts here: factual causation and legal causation. Both have to be satisfied before any liability can be assigned. If you’re a claimant, you will need to show that you have sustained a loss due to professional negligence.

A loss is often calculated by comparing the position you'd be in if it wasn’t for professional negligence to your current position. A lot of the time, this will be a financial loss, but it can also include a loss of opportunity.

You will not be able to claim for losses you would have suffered anyway. You also can’t claim for the time you have spent building your claim. In regards to factual causation, you won’t have a claim if you would have suffered a loss anyway, irrespective of the defendant’s negligence. You also won’t have a claim if the loss can be put down to something else other than their negligence.

If it was a combination of events, with professional negligence being just one of them, then it’s up to the court to decide whether or not the other events broke the chain of causation.

This connects negligence to the loss. As a general rule, you can’t prove that the defendant increased the chance of you sustaining a loss. If you can prove causation, then you may have a case and should hire professional negligence solicitors to fight in your corner.

The Importance of Legal Causation and How it Works

Legal causation is a significant factor when determining the liability of a professional negligence case. In fact, proof that the defendant's breach of duty was directly caused by the claimant's loss is required.

In this case, the court will likely use the “but for” test. This is the understanding of would the loss have occurred but for the defendant's actions.

While this is true in legal causation, it also requires assessing whether the type and extent of the loss were within the extent of the defendant's duty or if it was foreseeable.

Establishing the causation will provide you as a professional with the clarity that you are only held accountable for injury, loss or suffering you specifically caused, not for any unrelated factors.

If you feel as though you have a case because the negligence directly translates to your loss in terms of legal causation, then you should hire a professional negligence solicitor as soon as possible. They can then give you the help you need to build your case.

Succeeding In A Professional Negligence Claim

When undergoing a professional negligence claim, in order for your claim to be successful, you must, as the claimant, be able to demonstrate to the court in the balance of probabilities that:

1 - the professional owed a duty of care

2 - this duty owed was, in fact, breached

3 - the breach causes the claimant to suffer from loss or injury

4 - the loss was not too remote

Steps To Take When Hiring a Professional Negligence Solicitor

If you feel as though your case meets the above criteria, it’s so important that you get in touch with a professional negligence solicitor. They will help you prove factual and legal causation while also helping you understand which documents you need to gather as evidence.

This could include medical documents, or if you have experienced a financial loss, it could be bank statements and late fees for bills you’ve missed.

Showing how much you have suffered in a case is important as it’s often details like this that help to influence how much compensation you could be entitled to. A lot of it will come down to how much of the negligence led to your suffering as well.

Even if factual and legal causation can be proven, that doesn’t mean that you will receive the full amount you want or that you are suffering. Settlements are often made for the best of both parties, so you must have the proper legal support when navigating situations like this.