Lawyers negligence - Chong Yeo and Partners

An old case involving lawyers' negligence is the case of Chong Yeo and Partners v Guan Ming Hardware and Engineering Pte Ltd.

Here, the solicitors failed to file certain documents in relation to a summary judgment application (a type of proceeding where the plaintiffs claim that the case against the defendant is clear and the defendant should be ordered to pay up without further legal proceedings) against their clients' debtor. This failure led to a delay in the proceedings. The debtor soon after went into liquidation.

The clients then sued the solicitors for the delay. However, the court held that although there was negligence, it was not proven that the negligence led to the loss. Even if there was no delay in the hearing of the summary judgment proceeding, there was no proof that the debtor would have been able to pay up.

This case once again shows the difficulty of claiming one's loss from one's professional advisers even where they are negligent. To be fair, we cannot make professional advisers liable for all losses - the losses must be proved to be caused by their negligence.