To successfully bring a professional negligence claim, a claimant must
be able to prove the following elements:
- The professional owed them a duty of care;
- The professional breached that duty of care; and
- The breach caused them to suffer
financial loss - this is referred to as causation.
A professional negligence claim will not succeed unless the
claimant can establish all three elements.
The importance of factual evidence in demonstrating causation,
even where there is an admission of negligence, was emphasised in
the case of Beattie Passive Norse Ltd & Another v
Canham Consulting Ltd [2021] EWHC 1116 (TCC).
Background to the claim
The claim was for professional negligence and breach of contract brought against a firm
of consulting engineers, Canham Consulting Ltd (Canham).
