The value of each case depends upon the extent of any losses suffered by the client, and the strength of the evidence which is available in support of the claim.
Settlements in recent cases at Mulderrigs have ranged between £15,000 to £500,000.
We tend not to take on cases where the value of the claim is less than £15,000.
Solicitors Negligence – Valuing the “Lost Chance”
It may seem odd, but a Solicitors Negligence claim for a messed up court action (eg. A Personal Injury claim or a Divorce) doesn’t involve a straightforward re-run of the original case.
The original case has gone for ever, and the true purpose of the Solicitors Negligence claim is to value of the “lost chance” of having had your case dealt with properly in the first place.
The court has to consider all the risks involved in the original claim (Did you have a good case? – Would you have been found partly to blame? – Would you have settled for less than the full amount if an early offer had been made? etc).
The court also then has to consider the risks involved in proving a difficult Solicitors Negligence claim.
In one of our recent cases, our client had to consider the following risks:
His original case was difficult – his chances of success were around 75%.
Even if he had won the original claim he would probably have been found 25% responsible for the accident in any event.
His Solicitors Negligence case was difficult, because not all the evidence was helpful to our client – The chances of success were around 50%.
So, although the original injury claim may have been worth up to£500,000, the “lost chance” calculation (£500,000 x 75% x 25%, x 50%) reduced the value of the claim to something more like £140,000, even before any negotiations with the Defendants started.
Solicitors Negligence – Inconvenience and Distress
Discovering that your solicitor has been negligent can be a very stressful and distressing business, especially if you then have to take legal action to put matters right, and pursuing a Solicitors Negligence claim can add to that stress.
But the court is unlikely to award you anything for distress and inconvenience, except in the most extreme circumstances.
If your Solicitors Negligence claim is successful the court is also likely to award any additional legal fees which are required in order to put matters right, along with an amount for interest.