Professional negligence solicitors

Swift and pain free support to ‘right the wrong’ when a professional hasn’t done their job properly

We all rely on and trust a wide variety of professionals to give us good advice. If you have employed a solicitor, accountant, financial adviser, architect, surveyor or vet who has given you bad advice which has cost you money, you may be entitled to compensation.

Professional negligence claims and regulatory investigations can be lengthy, complex and deeply stressful. They often have significant consequences for a professional’s reputation, career and financial security. At Moore Barlow, our experienced professional negligence solicitors combine legal expertise with commercial understanding to resolve disputes and disciplinary proceedings with strategic thinking, practicality and empathy.

As trusted advisers to leading insurers, businesses and professional organisations, we have extensive experience in handling risks arising under professional negligence. Our team works closely with clients to provide clear, decisive advice that protects both their professional standing and long-term commercial interests.

Our expertise in professional negligence and regulatory matters

Our professional negligence lawyers provide focused, pragmatic advice in all types of professional negligence disputes, insurance coverage issues, complaints, and regulatory or disciplinary proceedings throughout the UK. We specialise in the swift and cost-effective resolution of complex, high-value disputes, using Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) methods such as mediation and arbitration where appropriate to avoid the time and expense of litigation.

When litigation is necessary, our solicitors have the skill and experience to represent clients at every stage — from pre-action correspondence through to trial and appeal. We understand the commercial realities that underpin every claim, and our advice is always tailored to achieve the most efficient and commercially sound outcome.

What is professional negligence?

Professional negligence is a legal concept that holds professionals accountable for failing to meet the standard of care expected of them in their profession. This can include doctors, lawyers, accountants, and other professionals who provide services to clients. If a professional breaches their duty of care and causes harm to a client, they may be liable for damages.

Best outcome in the quickest time possible

Whether you are an individual or a business, your professional advisers and suppliers of services owe you a duty of care and their advice must meet professional standards. Bad advice can cost you financially as well as causing many sleepless nights.

Bad advice, often called professional negligence, can cover a vast range of professionals working in a number of fields including: financial advice, legal advice, business advice, property surveys or valuations, architectural advice and veterinary advice.

Professional negligence is when the person that you employ fails to provide the level of service or standard of work that you would reasonably expect from them. We will make the process of righting this wrong as swift and as pain free as possible, after all, you wouldn’t be in this position if someone had done their job properly.

What professional negligence services do we cover?

Bad finance advice

You may have received bad financial advice from a financial service provider. Many of these advisers cover multiple types of advice. Others may provide advice on a single product. Bad financial advice could include:

• Pension advice, for example if you were badly advised regarding an occupational pension or advised to put your money in an inappropriate investment.
• Financial advice, where you were advised to put your savings into inappropriate investments or tax avoidance schemes.
• Banking advice, UK banks and foreign investment banks may have advised you to invest in inappropriate exotic financial structures, including volatility tracking products, commoditised schemes, international trusts and leveraged products
• Business and accountancy advice, where your accountant or tax advisers gave you bad advice which led to you paying too much tax.

From tax mitigation to investment schemes to pensions, we have assisted clients in successfully recovering losses from a broad range of advisers.

Bad legal advice

Solicitors provide advice on a range of issues, both to individuals and to companies. If this advice fails to properly address an issue you may have a claim against them. This could include:

• If you have been through a divorce and your solicitor failed to properly consider the value of your partner’s pension or other matrimonial assets meaning you weren’t awarded your fair share.
• If you have moved to a new house or business premises and your solicitor failed to carry out all the necessary legal checks.
• If you employed a solicitor to write your will, or manage your estate and inheritance tax planning, and they did this incorrectly, or failed to carry out an action such as registering a trust deed leading to the loss of IHT relief.
• If you are a farmer or own agricultural land and have been given legal advice which failed to look at issues such as Agricultural Property Relief.
• If you employed a solicitor to manage your commercial property rental and they failed to properly activate a break clause or even register an option agreement leading to you being unable or forced to move premises.
• If you employed a barrister to provide advice on specific issues of law which led to an under-settlement of a valuable claim.

We have assisted clients in successfully recovering losses from their legal advisers in a range of circumstances, including the under-settlement of claims, failures in the implementation of tax planning arrangements, and the lack of pursuit of divorce assets.

Bad property advice

If you have received advice on your property which failed to meet your needs or address an issue, you may be eligible for a claim. This could include:

• If you paid for a structural survey when you last moved home or business, and this missed significant issues which resulted in you having to take remedial action.
• If you employed an architect or structural engineer to carry out work on your property and their advice proved to be incorrect, costing you money.

We have assisted clients in successfully recovering losses from various advisers in relation to property transactions, including losses resulting from the overvaluation of property; failures to identify defects in properties; failures to identify environmental issues in close proximity to properties; negligent structural engineering advice; failure to activate lease break clauses or register options; failure to renegotiate lease terms; and failures to complete transactions on the terms expected (ranging from failure to redeem outstanding charges, to outright failures to complete).

Bad veterinary, equine or farming advice

If you own horses, manage a stud farm or manage livestock and bad advice or treatment has cost you money, then you may have a claim against the veterinarian or other professional for the money you lost.

Equine related veterinary negligence could include mistakes made during treatment of horses, or poor vetting of horses prior to purchase – mistakes that can be costly if purchases go ahead.

Bad equine advice can apply equally to an equine trainer, farrier of livery yard owner if they have failed to carry out their duty professionally.

Bad farming advice can cover everything from the negligent transfer of livestock to bad tax and estate planning advice.

We are experienced in helping clients successfully resolve claims involving a range of equine and agricultural issues, including resolving issues surrounding the division of a farm between various parties, resolving issues arising from a defective menages, problems with vehicle conversion, and failure to appropriately vet animals.

Financial scams

Your banks and financial companies have responsibilities to you, and this can extend to making sure that the person that is asking them to do something really is you. If you have been a victim of banking fraud or if fraudsters have been able to gain illegal access to your account, then you may have a claim against the financial institution for the money you lost.

From phishing scams to scams against company bank accounts, we have successfully helped clients minimise their losses resulting from a variety of scams.