We specialise in acting for service personnel who believe that, through no fault of their own, received less in compensation as a result of negligent advice from their Solicitor or legal representative in the course of a claim for military-related hearing loss or a non-freezing injury.

Our Military Justice team focus purely on representing military personnel. To bring under-settlement claims in relation to military claims it is important to have both experience of bringing claims against the MOD and claims against solicitors for professional negligence. Fortunately, our team has this expertise and we are one of few firms who can provide expert advice in this area.

The short answer is you probably don’t. However, we are here to offer assistance and advice for service personnel who believe they may have had their claim under settled. For example, you may have friends of colleagues who received more than you through other law firms or you may just be wondering if you received what you deserved. Our skilled team will be able to assess whether you were negligently advised or not at an early stage and, in cases where negligence is apparent, advise you about how to bring a claim.

Claims in professional negligence are complex and that is why our specialist team is here to guide you. But in summary, to be successful, you must establish three principles:-

1. Duty of Care: You have to prove that your solicitor had a duty of care towards you. This duty of care commences once you formally instruct a solicitor, which will usually be under a no-win, no-fee agreement.
2. Breach of Duty: You have to prove that the advice your solicitor gave you fell below industry standards, or that they provided false or misleading advice or information.
3. Damages: Finally, you have to prove that the advice you received led to you suffering financial loss.

Where we take on your case, we offer all of our clients a no-win no-fee arrangement. This is formally known as the Conditional Fee Arrangement (“CFA”) and we will explain this to you in more detail at the commencement of your claim.

Yes. To bring a professional negligence claim, you have six years from the date of the negligence occurring, which is usually the date that settlement was reached in your claim.

Assessing the level of loss in under-settlement claims is a complex area of law. We will advise you of the compensation we think you will receive once we have assessed your claim. We will be unable to take on your claim unless we think that your claim is worth at least £10,000 and some claims will be worth substantially more.

While our legal team will advise you further, a good starting point is to have available all medical evidence and advice you received from your solicitor including any Barrister’s papers (if these were obtained.) If you do not have copies of these documents, you can request these from your former solicitor of we can do this for you with your consent.

While we aim to work as quickly as possible to achieve an amicable settlement with your former legal representatives, we are governed by the Professional Negligence Pre-Action Protocol which stipulates that the receiving party has 21 days to acknowledge your claim and then 3 months after that to respond.

The initial stages of a claim will take on average between 6 to 12 months, and during this period we will investigate the claim thoroughly and obtain all the necessary expert evidence. If your former solicitor is not willing to enter into amicable settlement, it can up to two years from the date you instruct us to reach a trial, but this is rare.

Were your claim to go to Court, then you would need to attend and give evidence. However, the vast majority of cases are amicably settled without the requirement for a Court date.