Can I claim compensation from my lawyer if their error caused my closing to fail?

If your closing failed because your lawyer made a genuine error, such as missing a deadline, mishandling funds, or failing to catch a problem a competent lawyer should have caught, you may have a claim against them for professional negligence. Ontario lawyers are expected to meet a reasonable standard of care in handling your transaction, and a real, provable failure to meet that standard can support a claim for the losses it caused you.

This is a separate question from whether the closing itself can still be salvaged or whether you owe money to the other side under the underlying Agreement of Purchase and Sale; those obligations generally do not disappear just because your own lawyer was at fault. Ontario lawyers carry professional liability insurance specifically to address claims like this, and the Law Society of Ontario also oversees lawyer conduct more broadly. Because proving negligence requires showing both a failure to meet the standard of care and losses actually caused by it, speak with another lawyer promptly to assess whether your specific facts support a claim.