The standard is the profession's own
In short
- A professional is judged against a reasonably competent member of the same profession, not against perfection.
- The claim almost always stands or falls on a supportive expert opinion from the same discipline.
- The limitation period for negligence is three years, and negotiation does not extend it.
Kleanthous & Platis acts in claims against professionals whose work caused loss: lawyers who missed deadlines or gave wrong advice, accountants and auditors whose figures could not be relied on, architects and engineers whose designs or supervision failed, valuers, insurance intermediaries and other advisers. Medical claims are a specialised branch with their own page: see Medical Negligence Claims in Cyprus.
We also defend professionals. Acting on both sides is not a conflict, it is the reason the assessments are realistic: we know how these claims are attacked, and how they are proved.
The standard is not a judicial gloss. It is written into section 51(1)(b) of the Civil Wrongs Law, Cap. 148, which defines negligence as including the omission to use such skill or care in the exercise of a profession, trade or occupation as a reasonable prudent person who has the qualifications to exercise that profession, trade or occupation would use in the circumstances, and thereby causing damage. The comparator is fixed by the statute at a qualified member of the same discipline, which is why the expert has to come from it.
The proviso to section 51(1) is the part defendants raise first, and it is not about the standard at all. Compensation may be recovered only by the person to whom the person guilty of the negligence owed a duty, in the circumstances, not to be negligent. A report addressed to a lender, a valuation commissioned by a seller, an audit owed to the company rather than to its shareholders: in each case the first question is not whether the work was careless but whether the duty ran to the person now complaining.
Start with a written assessment
Tell us the parties, so we can run a conflict check, which professional and what work was involved, and a short account of the loss, with any deadline that is running. The assessment is a fixed piece of work with a written outcome: whether the work fell below the professional standard, what the loss provably is, and the realistic route. Please do not send the engagement documents or the work product until we confirm we can act, then they can come through the right channel.
The legal test
What has to be proved
Four elements, and the case is only as strong as the weakest.
The Civil Wrongs Law, Cap. 148, sets the standard directly: a professional is negligent where the work fell below the skill and care of a reasonably prudent, qualified member of that profession, and damage was caused by that failure. The standard is not perfection, and it is not hindsight: it is what a competent colleague would have done at the time, with the information then available.
The professional engaged for reward also owes a contractual duty of care, and the Supreme Court has confirmed that the two routes, contract and tort, run concurrently. Which is pleaded, and how, affects deadlines and damages, and is a decision taken at the start, not discovered at trial.
A professional who acted in line with a responsible body of opinion within the profession will generally not be found negligent, even if another school of thought would have acted differently. This principle, applied by the Supreme Court in Cyprus, is the single most important thing to understand before starting: the question is not whether the outcome was bad, but whether no reasonably competent member of the profession would have done what yours did.
The evidence
The expert is the case
Before proceedings are considered, the expert question is answered.
In practice, a professional negligence claim without a supportive expert opinion from the same discipline rarely survives. The court measures the defendant against the profession's own standard, and the profession speaks through experts. The first substantive step after the assessment is therefore identifying the right expert and putting the file to them, before positions harden and before money is spent on proceedings.
The file itself decides more than memory does: the engagement letter or its absence, what the professional was actually asked to do, the advice as written rather than as remembered, and the contemporaneous correspondence. Preserve all of it, and do not confront the professional with accusations before the file is secured: files have a way of becoming thinner after accusations.
Causation deserves its own sentence, because it is where these claims are most often lost: it must be shown not only that the work was below standard, but that the loss would have been avoided if the work had been competent. A missed deadline in litigation, for example, is only worth what the underlying case was worth.
If a lawyer, accountant or engineer you relied on has cost you money, tell us what they were engaged to do and when you first realised something was wrong, at office@kleanthousplatis.com, or the enquiry form. We reply within one business day.
Deadlines
Three years, and it runs while you negotiate
If the dates are close, the date question is answered before anything else.
The limitation period for negligence claims is three years. Complaints to professional bodies, negotiations with the professional or their insurer, and promises to "sort it out" do not stop the clock. Where the damage emerged late, the starting point of the period deserves specific analysis on your facts, and that analysis should happen early, not at the deadline. Section 27Α of Law 66(I)/2012 suspends the limitation period for negligence and breach of statutory duty for thirty nine months from the day the 2021 amending law came into force, so the three years is not by itself the answer to whether a claim is in time.
One more date matters in the other direction: professionals suing for their own fees are subject to a three-year period as well. Where a fee claim and a negligence complaint about the same work coexist, the timing of each shapes the strategy for both.
The realistic route
Most of these claims settle, and should
The prepared claim is the one that settles well.
Professionals carry indemnity insurance, and the real counterparty is usually an insurer making a commercial decision on the file in front of it. Where the allegation goes beyond negligence to deliberate deceit, the claim and the remedies change shape: see Fraud and Asset Recovery in Cyprus. That changes the method: the claim is built to be read, with the expert opinion, the causation analysis and the quantified loss assembled before the first serious letter. A claim presented in that form invites a commercial answer. A claim presented as a grievance invites a denial.
Where proceedings are needed, they are conducted with the same discipline, and settlement is tested at the points where continuing costs the insurer more than resolving. Trial remains the backstop, and preparing for it properly is precisely what makes it rarely necessary.
Common questions
My case was lost because my previous lawyer missed a step. Can I recover the loss?
Potentially, if a competent lawyer would not have missed it and the underlying case had real value. Both parts need evidence: the professional standard through an expert, and the value of what was lost. That two-stage analysis is exactly what the written assessment covers.
The professional is a friend of the family. Can this be resolved without a court fight?
Usually these claims resolve without trial, because an insurer typically stands behind the professional and decides commercially. A properly assembled claim, presented soberly, is the most likely route to a resolution that preserves what can be preserved.
The bad advice was given years ago but the damage appeared recently. Am I out of time?
Not necessarily. The three-year period and its starting point need specific analysis where damage emerged late. Bring the dates to the first meeting and the question is answered before anything else is spent.
What will this cost me?
The assessment is a fixed fee with a written outcome, including the honest answer where the claim is weak. Beyond it, nothing is spent without your decision, and fixed fees are used wherever the work is definable.
Who leads this work
Between them the partners bring more than 40 years of practice in Cyprus. Every matter is run by one of them.
Andreas Kleanthous
Partner
Litigation, personal injury and insurance claims, debt recovery, administrative law, real estate, wills and probate.
Klitos Platis
Partner
Litigation, corporate and commercial matters, property and construction, including pleadings, interim applications and trial preparation.
Written on this subject
How a Negligence Claim Works in Cyprus
LitigationWhat a Court Case in Cyprus Actually Costs
LitigationPersonal Injury Claims in Cyprus: Liability, Evidence and Damages
Personal InjuryAll our writing is on the writing index. Related: Litigation & Arbitration, Restructuring & Insolvency and Trusts, Wills & Succession.
Before instructing, tell us who is involved, what has happened and any deadline you are working to. Once the conflict check is clear we will ask for the retainer or engagement letter, the advice given, and a chronology.