"Kit Sorrell and Louise Gill have worked with us for some time and their advice has always been prompt, pragmatic and sound but what really makes them stand out is their ability to understand our commercial needs and weave these into our strategy. Together they are a formidable team."
Peter Kendal, Group Legal Director
Morris Homes Limited
Professional negligence is a complex area of law requiring specific litigation experience and expertise.
The Professional Negligence team at Pannone have unrivalled expertise within the North West advising claimants where disputes arise with professional service providers and is recommended for this area of work in Legal 500 2010. Whilst our team has a commercial bias and acts for a number of organisations (including lenders) we also act for individual claimants where professional services have fallen below standard. Our advice is always clear and commercially focussed.
We understand that the main driver for clients is the early resolution of disputes on acceptable financial terms and with that in mind, although we have considerable trial experience, we support all forms of alternative dispute resolution and successfully resolve claims through mediation on a regular basis.
Our areas of expertise include:
- acting for lenders (banks, building societies and secondary lenders)
- acting for businesses and individual claimants against professionals including:
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- accountants
- architects
- barristers
- estate agents
- engineers
- insurance brokers
- solicitors
- surveyors
- valuers
- financial services disputes. We have particular experience advising clients in relation to the collapse of:
- challenging solicitors' costs
Funding options
As part of our commitment to effectively meet the needs of clients we offer a new method of funding claims under Pannone's Advantage product. In conjunction with The Judge (a leading after the event (ATE) insurance broker) and First Assist (one of the leading ATE providers) we have developed a bespoke ATE insurance product tailored for claimant professional negligence work. Through the use of this product and our policy of considering "no win, no fee" conditional fee agreements in appropriate cases we provide clients with certainty in relation to costs, reduce the financial risk they face in pursuing good claims against negligent professionals and enable them to negotiate from a position of strength.
Our experience
The Professional Negligence team is part of Pannone's Dispute Resolution team and is recommended for its work in the Legal 500 2010. We believe that our recognition reflects the high quality of our work we regularly carry out for our clients and the successes we achieve.
Recent examples of our work include:
- acting for multiple clients with connected claims arising out of their investments in a fraudulent investment club. The claim against their former solicitor concerned a number of property transactions relating to the scheme and involved allegations of professional negligence and breach of fiduciary duty, together with complex arguments regarding causation and loss. All were settled favourably for our clients following mediation
- acting in a claim against a life assurance company arising from the negligent advice of one of its financial advisors. The client was retired and averse to risk, his prime requirement from his investments being a guaranteed income stream rather than capital growth. The advice given resulted in a significant loss to our client. The case was settled favourably following the obtaining of expert actuarial evidence in respect of the level of the loss
- acting in a claim against solicitors who had negligently drafted a share purchase agreement where our clients were the vendors of the business. The drafting error resulted in a significant financial liability for our clients. We successfully settled the claim without the need for proceedings making a significant recovery for our clients including their costs
- advising a client in a claim against the solicitor who had acted for the executors of his late father's will. The solicitor acted negligently and in breach of undertaking. The claim was settled at the pre-action stage with our client recovering the total sum claimed, together with costs
Partner Paul Jonson is "outstandingly commercial and very good with clients."
Chambers UK Guide 2011
To speak with a solicitor in the Professional Negligence team please click here or call us on 0800 840 4929.
