Medical Negligence Solicitors

Clinical Negligence, or Medical Negligence, is when doctors, dentists, nurses, midwives, or other healthcare professionals get it wrong.

Clinical Negligence, or medical mistakes, can happen at any time and can result from the actions of GPs or junior or senior hospital staff.

Private doctors can be negligent just as NHS doctors can. There is no boundary. If a doctor or a non-doctor clinician gets it wrong, there may be a case for Negligence. Pharmacists, psychiatrists, psychologists, audiologists, cosmetic surgeons, complementary medical practitioners, orthoptists, physiotherapists, podiatrists…. any professional working under the banner of healthcare could be negligent.

At one time, there used to be doctors, nurses, and the rest – porters, administrators, cleaners, etc. Now, there are multiple levels of health professionals. This means you could be treated by a paramedic, healthcare assistant, or specialist nurse, all of whom perform roles that doctors used to perform.

Anyone in a healthcare environment who has responsibility for patients could be negligent.

Clinical negligence, or medical negligence, is when doctors, or dentists, or nurses, or midwives, or other healthcare professionals, get it wrong. 

Clinical negligence, or medical mistakes, can happen at any time, can result from the actions of GPs, or junior or senior hospital staff.

Private doctors can be negligent just as NHS doctors can.  There is no boundary.  If a doctor, or a non-doctor clinician, gets it wrong, there may be a case for negligence.  Pharmacists, psychiatrists, psychologists, audiologists, cosmetic surgeons, complimentary medical practitioners, orthotists, physiotherapists, podiatrists…. any professional working under the banner of healthcare, could be negligent. 

At one time, there used to be doctors, nurses, and the rest – porters, administrators, cleaners etc.  Now, there are multiple levels of health professional.  This means you could be treated by a paramedic, healthcare assistant, specialist nurse, all of whom perform roles that doctors used to perform. 

Anyone in a healthcare environment who has responsibility for patients, could be negligent. 

Assessing the case

Before going any further, here’s a note of caution. 

Most cases are not black and white, for two key reasons. 

First, most case are about lapses in judgement, rather than about surgeons who, for instance, take out the wrong kidney (yes, that does happen). 

Second, there is often a causation problem.  What that means is that although there may be strong evidence that a doctor made a mistake, there may be equally strong evidence that even if the doctor had got it right, it would have made little, or no difference. 

Expert evidence

Whether there is clinical negligence depends on expert evidence.  This is fundamental.  It can make clinical negligence cases difficult to assess. 

The problem is this: even though a case may be blindingly obvious, the expert witness may not agree.   If the expert says the doctor was not impressive, but his or her judgement was not below the standard to be expected of a “reasonably competent doctor” – that’s it, game over.

If you’d like to discuss a potential clinical negligence case, please call on …..   London number and London email address?

Cases that result from clinical negligence, medical negligence, or medical mistakes, need a level of inquiry that cannot be achieved from a call-centre mentality.  You cannot assess whether a doctor has caused a life-changing damage from a telephone call.

The approach must be careful and rigorous.  You must examine medical records.  You must untangle medical jargon.  You must understand what really happened well enough to be able to ask challenging questions of experts.

You cannot cut corners.

Clinical negligence cases need time.  Which means you, as a solicitor, must give the cases your time.

Once you’ve done the groundwork, you need to be prepared for a long fight.  If NHS Resolution, or the private institution, don’t roll over early on, may not roll over until they’ve been pressed all the way to the door of the Court.  And sometimes, not even then.  Sometimes – rarely – you just have to end up in Court.

Diligence, grit, and understanding.  See it through.  That is our approach.

Medical Negligence claims can be time-consuming and quite complicated. In order to make your claim run as smoothly as possible, collect as much information as you can before you approach a solicitor. Record your treatment procedure, how this has affected you after, keep any relevant paperwork and record any conversations you may have had with medical practitioners. It might help to make a personal journal of all goings-on in as much detail as possible.

Here are the general steps for how you would make a medical negligence claim.

1. Firstly, we will ask for all of your medical records. Don’t worry- you don’t to compile this yourself, your GP will provide it.
2. Then we ask an independent medical expert to review your case and provide a report. They will decide whether they think your claim counts as medical negligence.
3. Next, a Letter of Claim is sent to the medical practitioner who treated you. They will have 3 months to reply with a Letter of Response. If they admit to a mistake, then at this point compensation can be decided upon.
4. However, if the medical practitioners deny any mistake, then a Court Claim can be issued. This might sound quite scary, but a Court Claim is just a detailed report of the details of your claim; your financial losses and your medical records.
5. A Defence will be sent from the practitioner that outlines the evidence to deny wrongdoing. Then your Court Claim and the practitioners Defence will be given to a Judge, who will decide if a trial is necessary. Though having to go to Court is a possibility, it is quite rare. Most medical negligence claims are settled without having to go to trial.
6. If no settlement has been reached then the claim might go to trial, where a Judge will decide the outcome of your case, and how much compensation you should receive.

A mistake made by a medical professional is not enough to make a medical negligence claim. You will need to show ‘causation’- that the incident has had a negative effect on you. That could be pain and suffering, loss of earnings, loss of mobility or the out-of-pocket expenses it has caused you, such as cost of care, further treatment or medicine.

The normal rule is three years from the date of the negligent treatment.

However, sometimes damage caused by negligent medical treatment can take months or years to be identified. The law recognises it would be unfair to apply just one fixed 3-year rule. If you become aware years later that negligent treatment caused the health problems you have now, you can still bring a claim. The law calls the time that you learned the negligent medical treatment caused your present health problems your “date of knowledge”. There is still a three-year time limit, but it only starts to run from your “date of knowledge”.

If you suffered negligent medical treatment as a child (this means a person under 18 years old), then you have until your 21st birthday to claim.

Don’t forget that making a financial claim through a solicitor is not the same as registering a complaint with the relevant medical department. If you wish to register a complaint, you have six months from the time of the incident to report it.

If we are instructed by a client near the time the three-year limitation period is about to expire, we would either issue proceedings protectively or try to agree on an extension of time with NHS Resolution or the insurers if the case involved a private health company or a privately paid clinician. We should be clear, however, that in these circumstances, we would usually need the client to fund the cost of the issue of proceedings. We encourage our potential clients to instruct us early, which gives us time to properly assess the strengths and weaknesses of the case.

Yes.

The Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) say that litigation should be a last resort, and that parties should consider negotiation or another form of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to settle the disputes outside of the courts.

ADR can mean: —

(a) Negotiation directly with your opponent – this could NHS Resolution, or the Trust or responsible party, or the insurers of that party;
(b) Mediation, where a third party – a mediator – facilitates a resolution between your and your opponent, usually at a neutral venue;
(c) Arbitration, where a third party – an arbitrator – acts as a kind of judge decides the case.

ADR can work well. It can be a good shortcut to settlement.

ADR can also be easily sabotaged by an opponent who agrees to use ADR, but doesn’t want to compromise. Often, at-fault parties do everything they can to avoid ADR, even though it can also be a powerful tactical tool in litigation.

Awards for compensation are for:

• Pain, suffering and loss of amenity (how your life has been changed by the Negligence);
• Loss of income – this will be a past and future loss if you cannot return to work;
• Care – this can be the largest part of a serious claim because you may need care for years into the future.
• Equipment – this can cover all sorts of devices that make a living as an independent person possible, even when you have suffered a life-changing injury.
• Accommodation – you may find that plans must be made to live in a different kind of home because you cannot manage where you live now.
• Modified vehicle – if you need equipment in the home, you may well need a modified car to get around.
• Expenses – this can cover everything else that the other categories have not covered – travel, medication, clothing – any expenses that, but for the Negligence, you would not have to pay.

The legal language for the parts of compensation are general damages and special damages.

General damages relate to compensation for injury and how your life has been changed. General damages are based on Guidelines issued by the Courts – The Judicial College.

Special damages mean identifiable provable financial losses. In serious injury claims, special damages almost always make up the largest proportion of the award for compensation.

In order to assess your case, we need your medical records. There is no short cut.

We cannot be confident that we have grasped the issues, without having all of your medical records.

A selection of the records may help at the start, so it is clear where we need to look deeper, but there is no alternative but to spend time forensically examining the details of what happened, what was recorded, and why.

Frequently, it is what is missing from the records that tells the real story. However, it is impossible to work out what is missing, without having assessed the records as they are.

Once we have carried out a preliminary assessment of the records, we will almost certainly instruct a doctor – a medical expert, as that person is called – to assess the records from the perspective of a doctor.

The medical expert opinion is the core of any medical negligence case – unless your opponent admits breach of duty (negligence) immediately (which happens sometimes), your case will depend on the expert evidence. If the expert does not support your case, you have no case to fight, it really is as clear as that.

The two most important elements of almost any medical negligence case, are medical records and medical experts.

A child cannot make a claim in their name. This is because although you can get married at 16, the law still regards you as not capable of making our own legally enforcible decisions until your 18!

The legal solution to this, is that adult, usually a parent, brings the claim in the name of the child (called a “minor”).

The adult is called the “litigation friend”. The way this is put is that the “litigation friend” brings the claim on behalf of “the minor” – so, for instance, “John Smith, father and litigation friend, of Steven Smith”.

Medical negligence claims are common in the NHS and they receive more than 10,000 new claims for compensation every year. Pay-outs for medical negligence can vary significantly and depend on the damages incurred. This can range from a thousand to many millions of pounds. This can be calculated based on medical bills or loss of work, for instance.

Medical Negligence claims can be difficult to prove. Delayed diagnosis and treatment claims are common in all sections of the NHS and establishing whether such a delay is negligent is often relatively simple. However, proving damages can be more difficult as pinpointing and exact damages caused by this negligence can sometimes be more complicated.   

At Freeman Harris, the most common funding arrangement involves our ‘No Win No Fee’ agreement, whereby legal fees are only paid if we win your case. These will be taken out of your awarded compensation.  

Yes, in certain cases. Whilst in most cases, claims will be made by those who have faced medical negligence themselves, a case can be pursued on behalf of either yourself or a loved one. A parent or guardian can make a claim on behalf of an injured child since they do not have the capacity to bring a claim. Alternatively, in deeply unfortunate cases of medical negligence that involve a fatality, a personal representative or executor can bring a claim on their behalf. 

It is unlikely. Over 70% of the claims brought against the NHS are resolved without going to court. However, inevitably some claims are brought to court, in which case your solicitor will support you and guide the process.  

There are certain criteria that must be met to have a successful claim: 

It must first be established that the duty of care received by the individual falls below the reasonable standard of care. Injuries or further related illnesses (damages) must then be established and proved to be as a result of this negligence.