We have all been there. Whether you are a lawyer, doctor, architect, or any other professional with a specialist skillset, chances are that your family and friends have asked for your input on an issue that they believe you may have some insight into at some point or another.
It’s natural to want to help your loved ones, and if you can use your expertise to guide them and save them some money, shouldn’t you just go ahead and do so? The answer is it depends. Sometimes, giving your friends and family some informal advice over drinks or dinner comes with minimal risk. At other times, helping them, even for free, can expose you to a claim for professional negligence if things go wrong.
In this article, our dispute resolution team discusses the risks of providing professional advice or services to friends and family. They explain when a casual conversation might stray into the realms of offering professional advice, how you can protect yourself when giving informal advice, and what you should do if you are concerned that someone you gave informal advice may issue a professional negligence claim against you.
If you want to understand the risks and protect yourself, our specialist business dispute solicitors can provide clear, practical guidance tailored to your situation.
We’ll be covering:
- What are the risks of giving professional advice to friends and family?
- What if you give the advice for free?
- How can I protect myself when providing advice?
- Does there have to be a contract (written or verbal) before any duty of care arises?
- What if my advice leads to a negative outcome?
- What should I do if I’m concerned about a claim being brought against me?
- Summary
What are the risks of giving professional advice to friends and family?
Giving professional advice to family and friends carries several inherent risks, including:
It can put a strain on your relationship
As the saying goes, you should avoid mixing business with pleasure. If your friend or family member does not like what you have to say, or if your advice turns out to be bad, you risk harming your relationship with them.
You may not have the relevant expertise
Many people believe that everyone practicing a particular profession possesses the same expertise and experience. This is not true as most professions comprise a number of specialisms, which can vary significantly. For instance, an intellectual property solicitor will likely have very limited or no experience of family law, and a cardiologist’s role is completely different from that of an obstetrician.
When a friend or family member assumes you are experienced in an area of your profession with which you aren’t familiar, and you try to advise them in connection with it, you run the risk of getting it very wrong and making things worse for them in the long run.
You likely do not have all the facts
Even when the advice you’re asked for is within the scope of your expertise, you’re unlikely to be given all the information you need to provide meaningful guidance, particularly during an informal chat down the pub or over dinner. You’ll be left to fill in the blanks and may end up giving incorrect advice due to a lack of understanding of the true situation.
You may be held liable if things go wrong
Professionals can be held liable if the informal advice they give turns out to be wrong. To understand how and when a casual conversation between friends can turn into something more and, probably, unexpected, it’s necessary to take a brief look at a professional’s duty of care.
When someone formally instructs you to help them in your professional capacity, whether with a medical issue, legal issue, building project, or any other professional service, you owe them a duty of care. The relationship between a professional advisor and their client is classed by the law as a ‘special relationship’ that always gives rise to a duty of care.
To fulfil your legal duty, you must act with reasonable care and skill. If you don’t, and if your client suffers loss as a result, you may be liable for negligence. Professional negligence is a complex area of law, and the standards expected of a particular professional depend on a number of factors unique to their circumstances, including usual standards within their industry.
When you give informal advice to your family and friends, you likely do not view them as a ‘client’, and do not intend to assume a legal duty of care towards them. In many cases, the law would likely agree with you. Although providing very general guidance in a social setting is not entirely risk-free, your friend or family member would be hard-pressed to establish that you owed them a duty of care when you offered a one-off piece of informal advice.
When your involvement in your friend or family member’s matter goes further, problems can arise. For example, if you are a builder and agree to draw up plans for an extension, or if you are a solicitor and agree to liaise with the Court on your friend or family member’s behalf, you may be deemed to owe them a duty of care and be liable for negligence if you subsequently breach that duty. It does not matter how well you know the individual involved; having a close relationship with them does not mean that you cannot owe them a duty of care.
What if you give the advice for free?
Unfortunately, advising your family member or friend for free does not necessarily mean that you do not owe them a duty of care.
Take the real-life case of an architect (Mrs Lejonvarn) who offered free advice and services to her friends (the Burgesses) on their landscape gardening project when the quote they had received was too high. Working for free, Mrs Lejonvarn organised and supervised a team to undertake the project, in the hope that it would help her to establish her own business, and the Burgesses would pay her for further services down the line.
In the event, the Burgesses were unhappy with Mrs Lejonvarn’s work and sought an alternative professional to complete the project. They subsequently brought legal proceedings against her, claiming £265,000 in damages to cover the additional costs of completing the project and remedial works.
The Court decided that Mrs Lejonvarn owed the Burgesses a duty of care, despite there being no contractual relationship between them, and notwithstanding the fact that she had provided her services free of charge. The Judge decided that Mrs Lejonvarn had assumed responsibility for providing professional services to the Burgesses, who in turn had relied on the special skills they believed she possessed. As a result, Mrs Lejonvarn owed them a duty of care. The fact that she had done it all for free did not alter this conclusion.
The Court made it clear that a professional’s duty of care in this context extends only to exercising reasonable care and skill when undertaking work; it does not extend to requiring the professional to carry out any specific work.
The Court described its decision as a ‘cautionary tale’ for professionals giving free advice to friends and family, but was at pains to emphasise that the facts of the case were relatively unusual. Mrs Lejonvarn had gone much further than offering ‘brief ad hoc advice’; the parties had approached the project in a professional manner, and it had involved considerable input and commitment on both sides.
How can I protect myself when providing advice?
The best way to avoid problems is to decline giving informal advice at all and instead recommend that your family member or friend take professional advice, either from you during working hours or from someone with the relevant expertise.
An outright refusal to help when asked might be unrealistic, particularly if you have a close relationship with the individual seeking your advice. In these cases, you can mitigate the risks inherent in providing informal advice by taking the following steps:
- Be explicit that you can only provide general guidance, not formal advice tailored to your friend or family member’s specific circumstances.
- If the advice sought is outside your expertise, don’t be tempted to try to advise them based on the limited knowledge you have. Be honest and explain that you are not qualified to comment on their issue.
- Ensure that your friend or family member understands that you are only giving a general steer as a favour to them, and that they should not rely on your advice.
- Avoid giving detailed advice or instructions.
- Recommend that your friend or family member seek formal advice if their query warrants it.
- Never go further than providing a piece of one-off advice. The more help and advice you provide, the more likely you are to owe your friend or family member a duty of care.
Does there have to be a contract (written or verbal) before any duty of care arises?
No, the parties do not need to have entered into a formal contract, whether in writing, verbally, or by conduct, for a duty of care to exist.
A duty of care can arise in tort independently of any contractual relationship between the parties. That’s exactly what happened in the case between Mrs Lejonvarn and the Burgesses mentioned above. The Court specifically addressed the point, stating that while Mrs Lejonvarn was not contractually liable to the Burgesses since there was no formal contract in place, she nevertheless owed them a duty of care in tort. It described the relationship between the parties as being ‘akin to a contract’, despite the legal requirements for a valid contract being absent.
What if my advice leads to a negative outcome?
If your advice leads to a negative outcome for your friend or family member, you may be liable for professional negligence, but only if the circumstances in which you provided the advice gave rise to a legal duty of care. In these cases, if you did not exercise reasonable care and skill when giving your advice, you may be found to have breached your duty of care and have to compensate your family member or friend for any losses they incurred as a result.
Bear in mind, too, that if the worst happens and you are found liable for professional negligence, you will not be covered by professional indemnity insurance. This means that you would have to pay any damages out of your own pocket.
As we have explained, offering your one-off opinion on a professional matter in a social setting is unlikely to expose you to legal liability. That said, giving bad advice that lands your friend or family member in trouble, even when done with the best of intentions, may harm your relationship with them.
What should I do if I’m concerned about a claim being brought against me?
It can be incredibly galling to find yourself on the receiving end of a complaint for something you did when attempting to help a friend or family member. You need to keep a clear head and approach the matter calmly to avoid it escalating, destroying your relationship, and resulting in bitter legal proceedings.
The following steps can help manage situations like these:
- Speak to your friend or family member about what has happened. If your advice was not responsible for the issue they now face, explain that to them clearly and calmly.
- Remind your friend or family member of any disclaimers you gave when providing your advice. For example, if you specifically told them that they should not rely on it, you should remind them of your conversation.
- Seek legal advice. Timely advice from dispute resolution solicitors like ours will clarify whether your family member or friend has a valid legal claim against you, and the merits of your defence if they do.
If matters are particularly acrimonious or if you are unsure of where you stand, it is advisable to seek legal advice before speaking to your family member or friend. That way, you’ll understand your position and avoid doing or saying anything that may jeopardise your legal position.
Summary
Being asked for their opinion is a daily occurrence for many professionals. Helping your friends and family out by offering one-off general guidance on an issue they’re struggling with won’t usually cause any problems.
The lines between a casual conversation and assuming responsibility for providing professional advice on which your friend or family member relies can sometimes become blurred. If you go too far, you may inadvertently overstep the line and find yourself subject to a legal duty of care. Then, if things go wrong, your family member or friend may have cause to bring a professional negligence claim against you, seeking damages for any losses they have incurred as a result of your actions.
Matters of this nature require careful handling to preserve your relationship with your family member or friend and avoid acrimonious legal proceedings. Our dispute resolution team has extensive experience in assisting clients facing issues like these and is ideally placed to provide the advice and guidance you need to facilitate a swift, amicable, and cost-effective resolution.
