Professional Negligence
James has extensive experience acting on behalf of claimants, defendants and insurers in disputes involving professionals such as architects, civil and structural engineers, insurance brokers, surveyors, estate agents, solicitors, accountants and tax advisors. He has also dealt with claims against those of a more niche profession, such as agronomists.
James has been recommended for his professional negligence work for a number of years in both the main professional directories.
Prior to joining chambers, James worked at Fishburns Solicitors, where he specialised in insurance backed professional indemnity work.
Professional Negligence Cases:
- Solicitors:
- Claim arising from solicitor’s alleged negligence in failing to limit all warranties given in a share purchase agreement to the vendors’ knowledge and belief, where the business was complex with multiple sites and employees and three vendors did not participate in management. Claim for £4.3m.
- Instructed by solicitors’ professional indemnity insurers in a claim arising from the grant of a lease of a boatyard. Alleged failure to advise that the landlord had no title to grant the rights of way stated in the lease such that the claimant’s business was not viable. Case involved expert reports in four separate disciplines and issues of scope of duty/the SAAMCo ‘cap’. Claim for c.£2.1m.
- Claim against litigation solicitors who negligently caused c. £750 worth of costs orders to be made against their client and then did not satisfy the orders or inform the client of them. Whether damages could be recovered when the impact on the client’s credit rating allegedly caused a mortgagee to repossess c.£1m of buy to let property owned by the client.
- IFAs
- Representing an IFA who advised the Claimant not to transfer out of an occupational pension scheme, but on the Claimant insisting advised him on the best replacement product to purchase. Issues of limitation and whether the Defendant ‘concealed’ any wrongdoing by failing initially in response to the complaint to disclose the advice document it produced.
- Claim against an IFA arising out of its failure to properly advise on an imminent reduction in the sum insured under a critical illness policy. Questions of the standard to be reached by an IFA generally but also of its obligations under the FSA code of conduct.
- Brokers:
- Failure to draw to insured car supermarket’s attention a burglar alarm maintenance clause which was applied to a policy by a brief reference in a 41 page policy schedule. Insurers declined cover for theft of 19 cars as a result of the insured’s failure to have the alarm maintained by an accredited entity.
- Claim against insurance broker who advised client to seek insurance for its stock at the value shown in its last filed accounts. Client insured for a higher, but still inadequate, sum.
- Claim against insurance broker for improperly enquiring as to, improperly taking down, or misstating to insurers, information given during telephone conversation with insured as part of proposal for insurance of four public houses.
- IPs and Accountants:
- Defending claim against the former administrators/liquidators of a well-known company specialising in modifying high-end 4x4s. Allegations of impropriety in how the administrators came to be appointed and as to the payments made by them to the appointing charge holder. Numerous and complex allegations, made more complex by their historic nature (the alleged misconduct was 9 years old) and the state of the documentation available.
- Claim against an accountant for its advice on a film-finance-style tax mitigation scheme. Whether (having said expressly that it could not recommend the scheme but in fact informing the client of all the potential benefits of it) the accountant was in breach of duty in failing to give proper advice on the scheme and whether and what loss was suffered.
- Construction professionals: see the Construction sub-page.
- Surveyors: numerous claims against surveyors in relation to asbestos surveys and pre-purchase property condition surveys.
- Others: Claim against an agronomist for negligent advice as to chemical treatment of winter oil seed rape crop and as to preparation of seed bed for drilling. Complex questions of agronomy expertise and causation.
