Frankfurt 
Professional Liability Law in Germany
In German Professional Liability Law, the number of claims made against lawyers, attorneys, tax consultants, accountants, and auditors increases from year to year. This tendency can be generally observed in German Liability Law and Tort Law. It can firstly be explained with the growing complexity of the fields in which advice is given. Secondly, similar to management liability, it is the pure pressure of competition that incites advisors to go for higher risks in terms of the quality of their services (i.e. due to time and cost pressure, necessary considerations and assessments are not being undertaken). A third reason for the increase in professional liability cases in Germany may be the higher expectations on the clients’ side: clients are willing to take legal action against a lawyer or another advisor whenever they have the slightest doubts about the correctness of advice. These three reasons serve as a good explanation of why Professional Liability Law in Germany (in regard to attorneys, lawyers, accountants, auditors, and tax consultants) becomes more and more important these days.
Legal malpractice in Germany – Lawyers’ Professional Liability
Within the limits of the client’s instructions, a German attorney is obliged to provide comprehensive and thorough legal advice and representation of the client’s interests in any direction. This includes going on the safest path to meet the client’s target. Under German Liability Law, it also means that a German attorney has to disclose obvious risks and doubts based on an assessment of the current case law on the matter they advise on. Otherwise, a lawyer or another advisor (tax consultant, accountant, auditor) would risk being held personally liable for legal malpractice. Especially in regards to legal malpractice, the courts in Germany have quite high demands as to the duties and obligations of German lawyers towards their clients. Therefore, clients have a good chance to get compensation in case their German Lawyers negligently causes a financial loss through imperfect advice.