Who Can Sue a Solicitor?

When considering whether to make a claim against a solicitor, it’s important to understand exactly who’s entitled to bring such a claim.

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1. A client

Usually, if you hire a solicitor and they do something wrong, you’d expect to be able to take legal action against them. However, it’s important to be clear about who the actual ‘client’ is.

Here’s an example:

Mr and Mrs A are a married couple who run a business together and have done so for many years. They’ve always used the same solicitor for all their business matters. Their business is set up as a limited company.

One day, the solicitor mishandles a legal case involving the business and it ends up going into liquidation. Mr and Mrs A lose all the money that they’d invested into the business.

You might assume that Mr and Mrs A can sue the solicitor. However, since the business was a limited company, the solicitor’s client was actually the company itself — not Mr and Mrs A personally. With the company now in liquidation, it’s the liquidator who gets to decide whether to sue the solicitor.

2. A non-client

In certain circumstances, a person who wasn’t a solicitor’s client could still sue them.

This can happen if a solicitor has a ‘special relationship’ with a non-client — in other words, where a solicitor has a close enough connection with a person and it would be reasonable to owe them a duty.

For example: Mr C asks a solicitor to draft his Will to leave everything to Mr D. If the solicitor negligently delays and Mr C dies before signing the Will, Mr D may get nothing. So, even though Mr D wasn’t the solicitor’s client, he may still be able to sue the solicitor because the solicitor knew that the Will was meant to benefit Mr D.