If you handed your personal injury claim to a solicitor in time, and they let the limitation date pass and lose it, that is their mistake – not yours. As personal injury experts, we help people in that position recover what their original claim was worth.
“We spend our days running personal injury claims which is exactly why we can help when a lawyer has let one slip.”
When This Applies to You
This page is about claims that were lost because of a lawyer’s error – not because someone simply ran out of time on their own. If you engaged a solicitor in time to protect your claim and they failed to meet the deadline (or the pre-court steps that protect it), the loss is down to them.
Often the person affected only finds out long after the fact, through no fault of their own. The good news is that a claim lost this way doesn’t simply disappear. Where it was lost because of a lawyer’s mistake, it can become a professional negligence claim and a way to recover the compensation you were entitled to all along.
How We Help
Because we run personal injury claims every day, we understand exactly what your claim was worth and how it should have been handled. That puts us in a strong position to show what was lost and to pursue the proper compensation on your behalf – with care, and without judgment about how you got here.
Solicitors are required by law to hold professional indemnity insurance, so in practice the claim is usually handled and paid by the insurer rather than by the lawyer personally. That means there is a real source of compensation to recover from.
A professional negligence claim is made directly by filing a Claim and Statement of Claim in the court, setting out what your former advisor was required to do, where they went wrong, and the financial loss you suffered as a result. Your former solicitor’s insurer will defend the claim and you will have the opportunity to negotiate informally prior to a trial.
Do You Have a Claim?
We may be able to help if all of the following apply:
- You had a genuine personal injury claim – motor accident, workplace, public liability, medical or similar;
- A solicitor was acting for you, and you engaged them in time to protect the claim;
- That solicitor missed the limitation date or a critical deadline; and
- Your claim is now statute barred or otherwise lost as a result of their error.
To act on a No Win No Fee basis, our usual criteria also apply: actual (not theoretical) financial loss of $50,000 or more, supported by documentation from an appropriately qualified expert.
Still within time? We can run your personal injury claim properly.
If your personal injury claim hasn’t yet been lost – you’ve been injured and want it handled right the first time – that’s our core work. Our personal injury team acts on motor accident, workplace, public liability and medical claims across Queensland. Visit our Personal Injury Claims page or contact us for a free initial consultation, and we’ll make sure your deadlines are protected from day one.
What You Can Recover
Broadly, the value of the personal injury compensation you lost – the position you should have been in had your original claim been run properly, plus related expenses and legal costs resulting from your original solicitor’s failure.
Frequently Asked Questions
The solicitor who was responsible for the claim. In practice their professional indemnity insurer usually steps in to handle and respond to it, and any compensation is effectively paid by that insurer.
That the solicitor owed you a duty of care, that the work fell below the standard reasonably expected by allowing the deadline to pass, and that you suffered financial loss as a result – namely the loss of your personal injury claim. Importantly, not only do you need to prove that your solicitor was negligent, you also need to prove that your underlying personal injury claim would have succeeded.
This practice area is specifically about deadlines missed by a lawyer who was acting for you. If no solicitor was engaged in time and the deadline lapsed before you instructed anyone, there is generally no professional negligence claim to pursue – but it’s still worth a quick conversation, as the position isn’t always clear-cut.
Yes – generally six (6) years, running from when you engaged the professional or from when you suffered the loss. Because your own time limit is already running, it’s best to seek advice sooner rather than later.
It depends on the insurer’s approach to settlement, but we aim to resolve professional negligence matters within around two years.
Yes. If you can show that your original personal injury solicitor missed a limitation date, causing your claim to be statute barred, and we think your underlying claim had good prospects of success, we will offer to act for you on a No Win No Fee basis.
Please note that the 50/50 rule does not apply for professional negligence claims as they are of a commercial nature.
We do not offer legal representation for alleged professional negligence relating to:
– accounting or taxation advice;
– commercial contracts or disputes;
– immigration; or
– family law.
We may offer representation for professional negligence in deceased estate matters. For example:
– if a wills and estates lawyer distributed the assets of a deceased estate in an improper way causing you to suffer loss; or
– if an estate litigation lawyer missed the time limit to file and serve a family provision application and the executor has transferred the estate assets.
What we focus on here
On this page our focus is helping people whose personal injury claim was lost because their lawyer missed a deadline. We don’t take on professional negligence claims involving accounting or tax advice, commercial disputes, immigration, family law, wills and estates, or other professions — but our broader personal injury practice is here for any current claim you need run.
Did a solicitor let your claim lapse? You may still have options.
Talk to our personal injury team for a free, confidential initial consultation – offices in Brisbane, Springwood and the Sunshine Coast. There’s no obligation, and we’ll give you an honest view of where you stand.
This commentary is published by Roche Legal for general information purposes only and should not be relied on as specific advice. The content relates to Queensland law only and is subject to change over time. You should seek legal advice for any question, or for any specific situation or proposal, before making any decision.