Date of negligence

Khan v Falvey (CA LSG 10 May)

The defendant’s solicitor failed to take procedural steps which resulted in the proceedings being struck out for want of prosecution. The client, the claimant, commenced proceedings for negligence against the solicitors within six years of the striking out, but his claim was time-barred because where, as in this case, it was clear that the value of a chose in action consisting of the chance of recovery in an action had been substantially diminished before it had been struck out, the cause of action in professional negligence accrued on the date on which that diminution had occurred. Because that date was more than six years before the action had been commenced it was statute barred.