Applebys Succesfully sue Solicitors over Errors in an Employment Case
At Applebys we specialise in pursuing cases against professionals who have acted in a negligent manner. Below is an example of a case where we pursued a firm of solicitors who had acted negligently in an employment dispute.
Introduction
We acted on behalf of Mr X in a claim for professional negligence against his previous solicitors. His previous solicitors had acted for him with regards a claim brought in the employment tribunal against his previous employers, an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice.
Background
On the advice of his solicitor, Mr X issued four claims against his employer. The allegations against his employer included allegations of discrimination on the grounds of trade union activity, time off in lieu, unpaid holidays and whistleblowing.
The employer defended the claims stating there was no proper legal grounds for them. They invited Mr X to withdraw his claims or they would seek to recover all their costs back from him if they were forced to defend the action at a tribunal.
Mr X was only made aware of the weakness of his case and that he could potentially be liable to pay his employer’s costs when his solicitor obtained a barrister’s advice three weeks before the final hearing. This was too late to avoid the subsequent consequences.
Mr X’s claims failed and he was ordered to personally pay his employer’s costs. Further errors occurred in that when the defendant’s made an offer in respect of costs in the sum of £50,000 (overall costs were over £130,000), Mr X was not made aware of this offer and no action was taken by his solicitors. The solicitors failed at this stage to take the necessary action to challenge the overall amount of costs and instead issued an appeal without merit which was subsequently withdrawn.
The court ordered a default cost certificate against Mr X and his employers obtained a charge against his property for around £130,000 and tried to commence insolvency proceedings against Mr X.
How We Were Able to Help
Mr X approached Applebys and we were able to quickly withdraw the appeal which had no prospects of success, make a successful application to set aside the default cost certificate and have the charging order on his property set aside. As the same time as acting to minimise the fall out from the various errors of his previous solicitor we commenced a professional negligence claim against his solicitors to force them to accept responsibility and to pay Mr X’s costs. Applebys did not feel it was appropriate that Mr X should lose his home and be made bankrupt because of poor legal advice.
As a result of our actions his solicitor’s insurers settled the costs bill against him. They also agreed to pay out all of his other losses and expenses from the failed employment tribunal claims and his legal costs in pursuing the professional negligence action.
Our successful handling of this claim enabled Mr X to move on from what had been a very worrying experience.