Professional negligence

Issue / Claim: The insured, an engineering practice, was defending a claim for alleged design failures associated with the construction and refurbishment of a commercial development. The value of the claim was £35m and seven other parties, representing the professional team engaged on the project, were involved. The action had been ongoing for some time before our client became involved.

Weightmans’ Investigation and Action: Technical evidence highlighted a risk to our client, and our challenge was to extract them from the claim in the most satisfactory way possible. Many of the parties had assumed entrenched positions against a backdrop of significant and increasing cost - £4m at this stage. At mediation, the differences between many of the parties were magnified and there were significant gaps between the respective valuations of the claim.

A sensible, economic and pragmatic approach was required, which we took to the party responsible for joining our client to the proceedings. We deployed further technical and economic arguments to bring about the required result.

Result: We were able to extricate our client for a relatively modest payment on the day of mediation. They were the only party to be released, and the action continued for some time after our departure.