A decade on, the pre-action protocol introduced to aid speedy dispute resolution in professional negligence claims has led to more tactical delay than constructive engagement. TLT’s Andrew Lyon and Charles Herbert report
In 1999, an article in the legal press referred to the new professional negligence pre-action protocol, which had been drafted that year, as “favourable to defendants and their insurers”. The article further commented that “it could (but should not) be used tactically to prevent claimants starting proceedings for nine months or more… it could make proceedings unnecessary in a very large number of cases”.
