Claiming For Clinical Negligence
At Pryers Solicitors LLP we have a wealth of experience in handling clinical negligence cases.
This section outlines your rights as a patient and explains how to pursue a clinical negligence compensation claim. It also outlines the various complaints procedures available and lists organisations who will be able to help you.
Before Legal action is considered
Before starting a legal action against a medical practitioner, you may want to consider talking to them first. There may be a genuine misunderstanding or a problem in communication that can be resolved at this stage.
If this fails, then a more formal complaint can be made. To complain about a GP you must write to the Practice Manager and to complain about a hospital you must write to the Complaints Manager at the Hospital Trust. Making a complaint is useful if your concerns are about procedures or behaviour that you would like to put right, or you would like an apology for the way you have been treated.
You must seek advice quickly. There are strict time limits for making complaints, often as little as 13 weeks.
Taking Legal Action
If you have been injured as a result of negligent treatment then you have a right to compensation. You have to obtain a Lawyer to act for you because these cases can be complex.
Clinical Negligence is a highly specialist area so it is important that your solicitor has specific experience in this field. The Clinical Practitioner or Authority will have their own solicitors and experts and you must have equal specialist advice.
Time Limits for bringing a Court action
Legal action must be taken within 3 years of the date you first knew, or could reasonably have been expected to know, that you have suffered an injury caused through somebody else’s fault. You should visit a specialist Clinical Negligence Solicitor as soon as possible since there is a vast amount of work to be done in bringing a case.
Clinical Negligence and the Law
In order to succeed in a Clinical Negligence claim, it is necessary to establish that the treatment was negligent. A patient has to prove that the Clinical Practitioner has been negligent on a balance of probabilities.
This means showing that the standard of care fell below what could reasonably have been expected. Medical opinion often differs over treatment for a particular ailment and it is a valid defence if it can be shown that the treatment was in accordance with the views of a responsible body of medical opinion.
If it can be established that the standard of care was negligent then you still have to prove that the negligence actually caused the injury. This can be trickiest part of the case. The Medical Practitioner may claim that the injury arose from the illness itself and not from the treatment; or that the injury would have come about in any event. Detailed medical evidence will be called with specialists for each side. Sometimes joint experts will be instructed where it is appropriate.
Pursuing a Claim – the procedure
Clinical Negligence claims, in a similar way to Personal Injury claims, are made up of a series of hurdles. If you do not clear one hurdle then you do not move onto the next.
The first step is to obtain the medical notes, records, x-rays, scans etc and check them. We have assistance from expert nurses to assist in the collation of the records.
Specialist medical experts will then be instructed to consider whether or not the treatment was negligent, and if it was, what damage the treatment has caused.
At the same time as the above, we are in correspondence with the Defendant’s solicitor in trying to persuade them that there is a case in negligence.
Clinical Negligence cases can often be settled by negotiation without the need to proceed to a full trial. If it is not possible to settle the claim through negotiations then Court proceedings will be necessary.
Clinical Negligence cases can be very expensive, because of the number of specialists and the detailed work required. Go to the page link – “Funding” – and this will give you the information that you need in relation to how claims are paid for.
