Claim against solicitor

Hi
The sale of our aprtament recently fell through, becuase the deeds for it did not exist. The solicitor we used to originally purchase the apartment, did not send them into the land registry and cannot locate them, despite charging us for getting them stamped etc. We have sent him a claim of our losses, which are quite significant as we have now been bridging for a year. Does anyone else have experience of this. What type of timeline should I expect for a payout? We have been working with a new solicitor on this, who says that there is a clear case of negligence on the previous solicitors part, but he can't give any estimation of timelines, and likelihood of success.
Thanks

Basic rule if you want to sue for negligence is that you A) have to prove negligence, B) have to prove actual loss and C) have to proof that B) is caused by A)( known as causation).

As every case is different it is very difficult to answer your question.. you will have to sue the solicitor and some but very possibly not all of your losses will be recovered. You really need to sit down with your new solicitor to get details.