This book examines in detail the principles underpinning professional liability both at common law (tort and contract) and by reason of statute (Trade Practices Act and Fair Trading Acts) in the context of property professionals. It includes comprehensive coverage of the Civil Liability Acts.

The early chapters deal with the sources of professional liability. They include an analysis of remedies for breach of professional obligations generally and of procedural issues, such as limitation of actions, expert evidence, apportionment, and contributory negligence in the setting of professional liability.

The heart of the book is original and accessible material on the measure of damages as it relates to the liability of the various professionals who become involved in property transactions. There are further chapters on the liability of lenders and local authorities as organisations commonly involved.

It is an essential reference for property lawyers, as well as any barrister, solicitor, or other professional directly or indirectly involved in litigation in this area.

Table of Contents

Foreword - The Hon. I.D.F. Callinan AC, Justice of the High Court of Australia
Preface

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1: Professionalism

PART TWO: GENERAL LIABILITY
CHAPTER 2: Sources of professional liability
CHAPTER 3: Limitation of professional liability

PART THREE: REMEDIAL ASPECTS OF PROFESSIONAL LIABILITY
CHAPTER 4: Remedies for breach of professional obligations
CHAPTER 5: Procedural issues

PART FOUR: PROFESSIONALS INVOLVED IN PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS
CHAPTER 6: Solicitors
CHAPTER 7: Real estate agents
CHAPTER 8: Valuers
CHAPTER 9: Accountants
CHAPTER 10: Construction professionals

PART FIVE: PROFESSIONALS ASSOCIATED WITH PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS
CHAPTER 11: Lenders
CHAPTER 12: Local authorities

Table of cases
Table of statutes
Index

"The authors of this valuable treatise on the liability of professionals have been ambitious in attempting to document the many recent developments in the law in this area and in embarking upon a survey of the obligations of particular professionals whose work has received comparatively little attention in the past....
This book makes a notable contribution to academic writing on a subject in which the community is showing an increasing interest, an interest which is reflected in the ingenuity and number of claims made by professionals on other professionals on behalf of members of an increasingly importunate society. The book is a book for practitioners also. Its arrange­ment and contemporaneity, and the depth of the research under­taken by its authors, will ensure that it will find a place on the shelves of all serious practi­tioners of the professions with which it deals."

-- The Hon. I.D.F. Callinan AC, Justice of the High Court of Australia, from the Foreword