Professional Malpractice (Accountants, Architects, Engineers, Brokers and Other Professionals)

A claim that a licensed professional other than a doctor or lawyer fell below the standard of care of their profession and caused a financial or physical loss.

Looking for a lawyer rather than a definition? Skip to the state-by-state list of Professional Malpractice law firms.

What it means

Professional malpractice, or professional negligence, is the claim a client or other injured person brings when an accountant, architect, engineer, real estate broker or appraiser, insurance agent, financial planner or other professional does their work carelessly and causes a loss. Doctors and lawyers have their own entries (medical malpractice, legal malpractice). The structure is the same across professions: the professional owed a duty, the duty was measured by the standard of care of a reasonably competent member of that profession in similar circumstances, the professional breached it, and the breach caused damages. Because the standard is professional rather than ordinary care, nearly every case requires an expert in the same field to say what a competent professional would have done, and several states require a certificate or affidavit of merit from such an expert before the case may proceed.

Each profession adds its own rules. An accountant is measured against generally accepted accounting principles and auditing standards and the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, and states differ on whether a third party who relied on an audit, such as a lender, can sue the auditor who had no contract with them. Architects and engineers are judged by the standards of their licensing boards and professional codes, and construction claims against them face the same statutes of repose and economic loss rules as other construction defect claims. Insurance agents and brokers can be liable for failing to procure the coverage the client asked for or for misdescribing a policy. Real estate agents owe statutory disclosure duties and, as agents, fiduciary duties to their own client. Most professions are overseen by a state licensing board that can discipline a licensee on a complaint; a board complaint is free and public but produces no compensation, and the two tracks are independent.

Damages are usually economic: the tax penalty an accountant's error caused, the cost to fix a design defect, the uncovered loss an agent's failure left, the money a bad appraisal cost. Limitation periods run from when the client discovered or should have discovered the error in most states, but some professions have shorter periods or repose statutes. Many professionals carry errors-and-omissions insurance, which is the practical source of recovery, and most engagement letters now contain limitation-of-liability or arbitration clauses that the court will examine before anything else.

Where this comes from

When people hire a lawyer for this

Gather the engagement letter, every report, drawing, return or policy the professional produced, and your communications with them, and see a lawyer before you confront the professional or file a licensing complaint, since what you say in a complaint can be used in the civil case. Ask the lawyer whether your state requires an expert certificate before filing and how quickly one can be obtained. Fee arrangements vary: contingency fees are common where the loss is large and documented, hourly where liability is clear but damages are modest. A licensing board complaint is worth filing in addition to, not instead of, a claim when the conduct was serious.

Worried about the cost? A lawyer can be hired for one part of a case only (limited-scope representation), may be paid from what a claim recovers (contingency fee), or may be free through a pro bono program or legal aid; a court can also waive its own filing fees.

Find Professional Malpractice law firms in your state

Choose your state to see Professional Malpractice law firms in the city where we list the most; your city may be under “other cities”, A to Z. A state marked “Consumer Rights” has no Professional Malpractice listing yet and opens the broader page.

• Alabama (Birmingham)
  +1 other city

  • Montgomery
• Alaska (Anchorage)
• Arizona (Chandler)
  +6 other cities

  • Gilbert
  • Glendale
  • Mesa
  • Phoenix
  • Scottsdale
  • Tucson
• Arkansas (Little Rock)
• California (Anaheim)
  +19 other cities

  • Bakersfield
  • Chula Vista
  • Fontana
  • Fremont
  • Fresno
  • Irvine
  • Long Beach
  • Los Angeles
  • Riverside
  • San Bernardino
  • San Diego
  • Santa Ana
  • and 7 more with fewer listed firms
• Colorado (Aurora)
  +2 other cities

  • Colorado Springs
  • Denver
• Connecticut (Bridgeport)
• Delaware (Wilmington, Consumer Rights)
• District of Columbia (Washington)
• Florida (St Petersburg)
  +5 other cities

  • Hialeah
  • Jacksonville
  • Miami
  • Orlando
  • Tampa
• Georgia (Atlanta)
• Hawaii (Honolulu)
• Idaho (Boise)
• Illinois (Chicago)
• Indiana (Indianapolis)
  +1 other city

  • Fort Wayne
• Iowa (Des Moines)
• Kansas (Wichita, Consumer Rights)
• Kentucky (Lexington)
  +1 other city

  • Louisville
• Louisiana (Baton Rouge)
  +2 other cities

  • New Orleans
  • Shreveport
• Maine (Portland, Consumer Rights)
• Maryland (Baltimore)
• Massachusetts (Boston)
• Michigan (Detroit)
• Minnesota (Minneapolis)
  +1 other city

  • Saint Paul
• Mississippi (Jackson)
• Missouri (St. Louis)
  +1 other city

  • Kansas City
• Montana (Billings)
• Nebraska (Lincoln)
  +1 other city

  • Omaha
• Nevada (Henderson)
  +3 other cities

  • Las Vegas
  • North Las Vegas
  • Reno
• New Hampshire (Manchester)
• New Jersey (Newark)
  +1 other city

  • Jersey City
• New Mexico (Albuquerque)
• New York (Buffalo)
  +2 other cities

  • New York City
  • Rochester
• North Carolina (Charlotte)
  +5 other cities

  • Durham
  • Fayetteville
  • Greensboro
  • Raleigh
  • Winston-Salem
• North Dakota (Fargo, Consumer Rights)
• Ohio (Cincinnati)
  +3 other cities

  • Cleveland
  • Columbus
  • Toledo
• Oklahoma (Oklahoma City)
  +1 other city

  • Tulsa
• Oregon (Portland)
• Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh)
  +1 other city

  • Philadelphia
• Rhode Island (Providence)
• South Carolina (Columbia)
• South Dakota (Sioux Falls)
• Tennessee (Memphis)
  +1 other city

  • Nashville
• Texas (Austin)
  +11 other cities

  • Arlington
  • Corpus Christi
  • Dallas
  • Fort Worth
  • Garland
  • Houston
  • Irving
  • Laredo
  • Lubbock
  • Plano
  • San Antonio
• Utah (Salt Lake City)
• Vermont (Burlington)
• Virginia (Norfolk)
  +3 other cities

  • Chesapeake
  • Richmond
  • Virginia Beach
• Washington (Seattle)
  +2 other cities

  • Spokane
  • Tacoma
• West Virginia (Charleston)
• Wisconsin (Madison)
  +1 other city

  • Milwaukee
• Wyoming (Cheyenne)

Related terms

Other entries in the same area of law, each written from the same primary sources.

• Automatic Renewal and Negative Option SubscriptionsThe federal and state rules on subscriptions that keep charging until you cancel - what a seller must disclose and obtain before enrolling you, the cancellation mechanism it must offer, and where the law currently stands.
• Billing Error Dispute (Credit Card Chargeback)The federal procedure for disputing a charge on a credit card statement - a written process with deadlines on both sides that the card issuer must follow, not a courtesy it may offer.
• Car Dealer FraudThe common deceptive practices in buying a car - spot delivery, hidden damage, odometer rollback, packed add-ons and financing markups - and the federal and state laws that give buyers claims against the dealer and the lender.
• Class ActionOne lawsuit brought by named plaintiffs on behalf of a larger group with the same injury.
• Cooling-Off Rule (Canceling a Door-to-Door Sale)The federal right to cancel certain sales made at your home or away from the seller's regular place of business, the notice the seller must give you, and the many sales it does not reach.
• Credit Freeze and Fraud AlertTwo free federal tools for stopping identity thieves from opening accounts in your name - one that locks your credit file, one that warns lenders to check who they are dealing with.
• Credit Report DisputeThe federal process for forcing a credit bureau and the company that reported an item to investigate information you say is wrong.
• Data Breach Notification RightsWhat a business must tell you when your personal information is exposed, which laws require it, what the notice must say, and what a person whose data was breached can actually claim.
• Debt Validation Notice and Disputing a DebtThe written notice a debt collector must send when it first contacts you, what it must contain, and the dispute right it opens - during which the collector must stop until it verifies the debt.
• Fair Debt Collection (Collector Conduct Rules)Federal limits on what a third-party debt collector may say and do - including a written demand that stops contact, and a 30-day right to make them verify the debt.
• Gift Card and Prepaid Card RulesThe federal limits on gift card expiration and fees, the state laws that go further, and the separate protections for reloadable prepaid cards used like bank accounts.
• Identity Theft Recovery RightsThe federal rights a victim of identity theft can use to remove fraudulent accounts from a credit report, obtain the records of what the thief did, stop the debts being collected, and limit liability for the charges.
• Implied Warranty and the Magnuson-Moss ActThe promises the law reads into a sale whether or not anyone wrote them down, and the federal act that limits how a seller can take them away.
• Investment Fraud and Broker Misconduct ClaimsAn investor's remedies when a broker, adviser or issuer misrepresented an investment, churned an account, recommended unsuitable products or stole, and why most broker claims go to FINRA arbitration rather than court.
• Legal Malpractice (Suing Your Lawyer)A claim that a lawyer's negligence or breach of duty cost the client money, which usually requires proving the client would have done better in the original matter.
• Mandatory Arbitration ClauseA term in a consumer contract that sends any dispute to a private arbitrator instead of a court, usually alone rather than as part of a class - and federal law makes most of them enforceable.
• Right of Rescission (Home Loans)A federal right to cancel certain loans secured by your home during a short window after signing - and for much longer if the lender failed to give the required disclosures.
• Robocalls and the TCPAThe federal law that restricts automated and prerecorded calls and texts to your phone, gives you a Do Not Call right, and lets you sue for a fixed amount per illegal call.
• Time-Barred DebtA debt so old that the statute of limitations bars a lawsuit to collect it - what a collector may and may not do about it, how a payment can revive it, and why the credit-reporting clock is a different clock.
• Unauthorized Debit Card and Electronic Transfers (Regulation E)The federal rules that limit a consumer's loss from an unauthorized debit card, ATM, ACH or payment-app transfer, require the bank to investigate an error, and decide who bears a loss the consumer was tricked into sending themselves.
• Unfair and Deceptive Practices (UDAP)The consumer-protection laws, one federal and one in every state, that make it illegal for a business to mislead you or treat you unfairly - and the state versions are the ones a consumer can actually sue under.
• Vehicle RepossessionA lender's right to take back a financed car after default without going to court - subject to rules about how it is taken, how it is sold, and what you can still be made to pay afterwards.
• Wage GarnishmentA legal order requiring an employer to withhold part of someone's pay and send it to a creditor.

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