Professional Liability
Benedict has experience in dealing with a wide range of professional liability matters involving a broad range of professionals including solicitors, brokers, company directors, consultants, engineers, architects, and surveyors.
He is increasingly instructed in professional liability matters involving construction and insurance professionals due to his complementary expertise in those practice areas. Recent instructions involving construction and insurance professionals include:
- Engineers – settling the Particulars of Claim in a £4,000,000 claim (as sole counsel) against a structural and civil engineering firm involving the issue of late and erroneous design information and drawings on a town centre redevelopment project;
- Engineers – settling the Defence in a claim against a structural engineer involving an allegedly negligent report on the structural soundness of a listed luxury Brighton property which led to extensive underpinning works being carried out. Involved complex structural engineering expert evidence on load-bearing in historic buildings through beams and partition walls;
- Directors – M W High Tech Projects UK Ltd v Greenhalgh and others – settling the 180-page Defence in this £320,000,000 TCC claim for breach of directors’ duties against three former directors arising out of the Claimant construction company’s entry into three large waste-to-energy plant projects (led by Daniel Shapiro KC and James Sharpe). During pupillage, Benedict also assisted Daniel and James with their skeleton argument for an interim hearing which variously involved applications for summary judgment, strike out, and initial and extended disclosure, and is reported at [2022] EWHC 2000 (TCC);
- Insurance brokers – (on secondment) advising on a prospective claim against brokers for placing inadequate D&O cover with unusually onerous exclusions compared to market norms;
- Insurance brokers – (during pupillage) drafted a Defence on behalf of an insurance broker specialising in luxury yacht insurance in an additional claim brought by an insurer for the broker’s failure to ask sufficient questions to elicit the insured’s claims history;
- Solicitors – (on secondment) advising on the prospects of a potential claim against a law firm that failed to make enquiries about the D&O cover available to a multi-national corporate group and failed to make notifications;
- Surveyors – advising and drafting a Defence on behalf of a surveyor who allegedly failed to identify signs of sulphate attack to a property during a RICS homebuyer’s survey. Benedict also produced an application for summary judgment on limitation grounds and successfully obtained discontinuance at an early stage in the litigation;
- Surveyors – (during pupillage) drafted a Defence on behalf of the Defendant Party Wall Act surveyor who faced allegations of negligence for failing to order an intrusive structural survey into the Claimant’s property before approving work pursuant to the Act;
- Planning consultants – (during pupillage) drafted pre-action correspondence on behalf of the Claimant in a claim concerning negligent advice on the scope of the permitted development regime for agricultural conversions. The Claimant’s newly built shed conversions had to be demolished pursuant to an enforcement notice;
Benedict has extensive experience of solicitors’ liability matters involving the usual run of issues involved in the negligent conduct of litigation (including commercial, land, general civil, family, immigration, and criminal litigation) and the negligent performance of non-contentious work (including conveyancing, drafting, transactional, and advisory work). Recent highlights from his solicitors’ liability practice include:
- Conveyancing – acting for Defendant solicitors at a CCMC for a claim put at £380,000 in which it was alleged that the Defendant firm had failed to comply with the RBS v Etridge requirements and had facilitated a mortgage transaction by undue influence;
- Conveyancing – pleading a Defence and Counterclaim against a firm of solicitors that were bringing a claim for a mistaken payment of £220,000 to a client (which ought to have been used to discharge a mortgage) that arose out of that firm’s own negligence;
- Conveyancing – advising on and settling Letters of Response in various conveyancing matters involving negligent SDLT advice including a failure to advise on the possibility of recovering higher rate SDLT;
- Commercial leases – advising on quantum and settlement strategy in a matter in which solicitors had allegedly failed to competently negotiate an £800,000 option to purchase in a commercial lease. Quantum advice involved assessing competing valuations of the option with reference to the underlying value of the site, its development potential, as well as a £200,000 figure floated during unsuccessful negotiations between the landlord and tenant for the release of the option;
- Real property litigation – advising on merits and quantum in a complex claim for alleged negligent advice and conduct in relation to a First-Tier Tribunal claim for adverse possession of a patio garden which was only successful in part and resulted in substantial costs liability;
- Real property litigation – advising and drafting a Defence in a claim against solicitors for their alleged failure to conduct easement litigation competently. Involved complex issues of land law given that there was difficulty tracing the easement through a series of conveyances dating back to the 19th century;
- Commercial litigation – advising and drafting the Letter of Response in relation to a debt claim for unpaid invoices which was struck out for breach of various rules and court orders;
- Family litigation – advising on and settling Letters of Response in various family litigation matters involving allegations of negligent preparation for FDR, failures to advise on costs liability, and generally negligent conduct of litigation;
- Crime and immigration – advising in relation to a matter in which it was alleged that a firm had given negligent advice to an asylum seeker about the prospects of defending various charges for using false documents to enter the country;
- Probate – advising in several White v Jones claims brought by disappointed prospective beneficiaries;
- Commercial advisory – (during pupillage) drafted a Defence on behalf of a solicitor’s firm which allegedly breached the no-conflict duty by advising its client on an agreement entered into between the directors of the firm and the client under which the directors would raise capital for the client in exchange for an allocation of shares.
Selected Cases
View full profile »Awards
- Academic Scholarship, Oriel College (2017-2019)
- Oriel College Prize for Finals results (2019)
- Finalist (top 12 of over 100 essays), Times Law Awards (2020)
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Qualifications
- BA Jurisprudence (Double First, 9/250 in cohort); Oriel College, University of Oxford
- Bachelor of Civil Law (Distinction); Oriel College, University of Oxford
- Bar Vocational Studies (Distinction); City, University of London
