This office by means of its presence on the Internet attracts numerous enquiries about possible claims against professional advisors.These can be alleging that a Will was not properly drawn up (usually a disappointed beneficiary). It may be that a Solicitor has failed in the duty owed to you as a client.
At the outset some basic facts have to be known.
Firstly, you can’t allege any kind of wrongdoing unless you have proof of what you say. Whether you have an opinion that you are right and a wrong has been carried out is not enough. You are entitled to your opinion on anything. You are not entitled to your own version of the facts.
It follows that your opinion of what happened is not sufficient to win your case. It is not sufficient to allege certain facts without independent proof of what you are claiming. All the decisions on claims of professional negligence require a report from an independent expert in that field. In a medical negligence claim a medical consultant of equal qualification is required to provide a report. For a claim about a conveyancing matter or litigation matter an expert conveyancing or litigation Solicitor is required to prepare a report. That report will cost and it must back up the allegations made by you if you think you were badly advised.
You must also have suffered a financial loss. You must claim within six years of the relevant facts if it is a breach of contract matter. For a Will challenge you have six months after the Grant of Probate issues. Both of those limits are set down in legislation and are not variable.
The High Court is a busy place to bring a claim without an expert report as to how someone was negligent. In the absence of this you will have the case thrown out with an award of costs made against you.
The Judges of the High Court have said that in clear terms in the recent case of Loomes v Rippington delivered on the 6th of March 2020.
Here a person sought to challenge a Will on two grounds. Firstly that the Will was not executed by the sister of the claimant and secondly that the Deceased person didn’t have the capacity to make the Will. The Judge hearing the case said there was no evidence to support either claim or to contradict the two witnesses to the Will in any way that they were not reliable.
In summary, you need to be sure of your facts not your opinion. You put the facts before an independent expert to see if the facts are strong enough to get a written opinion on how you should be believed.
In the absence of this opinion you will not succeed in your claim.