Professionals carry insurance for exactly this. Speak to Kestrel.
Solicitors, surveyors, accountants and advisers owe you reasonable skill and care, and they carry compulsory insurance against failing in it. A claim needs more than a bad outcome: it needs work below a competent standard and a provable loss flowing from it. The route is structured: complaint, ombudsman where one exists, then a protocol letter that brings the insurer to the table. Time limits are layered, so dates come first.
The test is the standard of a reasonably competent member of that profession, not perfection and not hindsight. A lost case, a falling market or an unwelcome tax bill is not negligence by itself; a missed limitation date, an unnoticed structural defect, or advice no competent peer would have given is.
Causation and loss decide the money: you must show that but for the failure you would have been better off, and by how much. Missed-deadline cases are valued on the lost claim's prospects; bad-survey cases on price paid against true value; bad tax advice on the difference proper advice would have made.
Time limits are layered: six years from the negligence, or three from when you reasonably discovered it, with a fifteen-year longstop. Cheap routes exist alongside court: the Legal Ombudsman for lawyer service failures, the Financial Ombudsman for regulated advice, and professional bodies for conduct. The pre-action protocol then structures the real claim, and insurers, not the professional, drive settlement.
Guide edition: August 2026. General information for England and Wales. Current law and your particular facts require assessment before action.
Retainer or engagement letter, the work, the advice given, and when you first knew something was wrong. The limitation analysis starts here.
The firm's complaints process, then the relevant ombudsman where the case fits: free, documented, and sometimes sufficient.
For real losses: a letter setting out breach, causation and quantified loss, triggering the insurer's involvement and a structured response.
Most professional negligence resolves in the protocol or mediation. Court remains for the cases that justify its cost, priced honestly first.
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Speak to Kestrel nowSix years from the breach, or three from knowledge, fifteen-year longstop. Ombudsman schemes carry their own shorter windows from the final complaint response. When in doubt, treat the earliest arguable date as the real one.
This guide concerns Civil disputes. It forms part of our reference library. Kestrel is preparing for SRA authorisation. See practice details for the proposed service and current availability.
The classic claim: the value is the case you lost, discounted for its prospects, and the firm's insurer answers it. The complaints letter and protocol route get it moving; your old file is yours to demand.
A survey must find what a competent survey of that level would find. The measure is broadly the difference between what you paid and what the true condition justified, evidenced by a fresh report and quotes. Level of survey matters: valuations promise less than building surveys.
If competent advice would have lawfully avoided it, the difference, plus penalties and interest caused, is claimable. HMRC's view of the scheme is not the test; peer-standard advice is.
Ombudsman schemes are free, fast and binding on the firm up to their award limits: right for service failures and moderate sums. Court handles the larger and the technically contested. The letters we write keep both doors open.
Start with the AI legal assistant, then follow the case, messages and lawyer review in your Legal Centre.
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