Common claims against legal practitioners
Negligence by a legal adviser tends to surface at the worst possible time — when a claim is struck out, a settlement falls over, or a will is challenged.
- Limitation periods or court deadlines missed, killing an otherwise good claim
- Conveyancing errors: undisclosed easements, covenants, zoning or planning restrictions, defective title
- Failure to advise on special conditions, cooling-off rights or a defective section 32 or contract disclosure
- Settling litigation at an undervalue, or failing to advise properly on an offer of compromise
- Negligently drafted wills, trusts, leases or commercial contracts
- Failure to advise on the tax, stamp duty or GST consequences of a transaction
- Undisclosed conflicts of interest, and losses caused by delay or inaction
Loss of a chance — how these claims are valued
Where the error deprived you of the opportunity to pursue a case, the court does not retry the original dispute. It assesses what the lost opportunity was worth: the likely value of the underlying claim multiplied by the realistic prospect that you would have succeeded.
That makes the evidence in the original matter decisive. We reconstruct it from the practitioner's file, which you are generally entitled to obtain, together with your own records.
What happens first
We review the costs agreement and retainer to establish the scope of the engagement — scope is very often the battleground. We then set out breach, causation and loss and put the claim to the practitioner's insurer.
Most states operate a professional standards scheme that caps practitioner liability, and practitioners must carry insurance meeting minimum terms. A properly evidenced claim is therefore usually met by an insurer with the means to pay.
Signs of lawyer negligence
- Your claim was struck out, discontinued or is now statute-barred
- A property problem emerged that searches or the contract disclosure should have revealed
- You were pressed into settling without a clear written explanation of the alternatives
- A will, trust or lease did not do what you were told it would do
- Your matter sat untouched for months while the position deteriorated