Medical negligence solicitors

You will need to prove:

1. The medical practitioner treated you or your loved one in a way that no competent person in same discipline of medical practice would have.
2. The harm suffered was a direct result of the action(s) or failure(s) to act.

Most commonly, we act for clients whose serious injury arose from negligent:

• maternity care (obstetric and midwife care of mother and baby);
• neonatal care (within the first few weeks of a baby’s life);
• GP (general practitioner) misdiagnosis and delays;
• oncological (cancer) errors and delays;
• surgical and anaesthetic errors and delays;
• A&E (accident and emergency) misdiagnoses, mistakes, and delays;
• cardiology;
• vascular care;
• orthopaedic care;
• hospital care.

These life-changing injuries affect every aspect of the injured person’s life, including their independence, mobility, ability to communicate, self-care, work and participate in social and leisure pursuits. Their lifespan may be shortened, and they may become totally dependent on others for care to keep them safe and healthy, and for assistance with all the usual activities of daily life.

Our clients who have been severely injured/disabled by medical negligence have suffered:

• cerebral palsy and other birth-related brain injury;
• maternal childbirth injury;
• serious neurological injury and learning disability from infection or neonatal brain injury;
• brain damage from brain haemorrhage/intracranial bleeding/haematoma, clots and stroke;
• amputations from meningitis, septicaemia/sepsis, peripheral ischaemia, negligent diabetic care, anticoagulation and surgical errors;
• paralysis, pain, impaired function and psychological damage from cauda equina (spinal cord compression), spinal tumours and surgical/traumatic spinal injury;
• pain, disability, impaired function, reduced lifespan and psychological damage from cancer;
• cardiac damage from undiagnosed heart attacks or misdiagnosed cardiac conditions;
• bowel injury, peritonitis, and sepsis from surgical error;
• permanent, severe disability from delayed diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis (TB);
• brain injury and psychological damage from anaesthetic errors;
• nerve injury from surgical errors;
• severe disability from medication/prescribing mistakes and anaphylaxis.

We also help dependent families claim compensation where their loved one died as a result of medical negligence. Compensation can ease the financial hardship that often follows the unexpected death of a parent or partner, providing some relief for our clients at this extremely difficult time.

• liability is admitted by the defendant (NHS hospital or doctor);
• the injured person’s injuries have stabilised and their prognosis (long-term outcome) is clear;
• the injured person’s needs, the costs of meeting those needs, and other financial losses are straightforward and easy to assess clearly.

Circumstances which make the claim more complex and therefore take longer to resolve include:

• where the defendant disputes that they were negligent or that the medical treatment given (even where admittedly negligent) caused the client’s injury;
• where the injured person is a child whose disability is expected to change with their growth and development over time;
• where multiple experts in different disciplines are needed to assess complex injuries and the likely long-term outcome.

An initial full or partial denial of liability by NHS Resolution or other medical defence organisation does not necessarily mean that the injured person’s claim will fail. In more than half of our successful cases over the last five years, we have overcome initial denials of liability by the defendant, resulting in excellent settlements for our clients.

Our medical negligence solicitors work hard to secure early admissions of liability and substantial interim payments so that we can begin to alleviate financial hardship and provide essential care, specialist equipment, therapies, and home adaptations long before the claim has settled. With liability judgments secured and interim funds in place, the individual and their family are able to focus on rebuilding their lives whilst we concentrate on valuing and negotiating settlement of the claim.

If they fail to issue court proceedings within that time, their claim will be statute barred, meaning that they lose their right to bring a claim.

There are the following exceptions to the three-year rule:

• if a child is injured before they are 18, their three-year deadline expires on their 21st birthday. In other words, their time doesn’t start to run until they are 18;
• if the injured person is mentally disabled (lacks mental capacity) then their time doesn’t begin to run at all, unless their mental capacity is restored even temporarily after their injury;
• where the injured person has died as a result of negligent treatment within three years of their injury, the three-year time limit expires three years after the date of their death;
• if the injured person did not suspect or could not reasonably think they had been injured by negligence the three year time period will start to run when the injured person first became aware (or should have suspected) that they had been injured by negligent care;
• the court has a general discretion to extend the time limit in cases where none of the above exceptions apply, but only does so in exceptional circumstances.

Regardless of your time limit, we recommend that you contact us as soon as you can after the injury has taken place, even if at that stage you are only considering whether to make a claim. By contacting us early:

• you may avoid later problems with deadlines;
• we can advise you how to collect and preserve essential evidence;
• we can ensure you have the best chance of securing your entitlement to full compensation for your claim.

The chances of a case going to trial are higher where:

• NHS Resolution, the NHS’s defence organisation, decides to test the court's approach to a particular type of claim by taking a case all the way to court;
• there is a point of law in a claim which needs clarification to avoid confusion is future cases;
• where there is strong disagreement between the medical experts for each side about whether treatment amounted to negligence or caused the injury, needing the court to decide;
• where there is a factual dispute about what happened between the parties, which must be decided upon by the court before liability can be determined.

Where our client’s claim is complicated by any of the above, strategies to put the defendant under pressure to settle the case without trial are especially important.  Although we can’t prevent the defendant taking any particular case to trial, we can and do use litigation strategies to maximise the chances of a successful outcome without the need for trial. Our caring and highly experienced medical negligence solicitors and barristers work with and support our clients every step of the way.

Even in non-contested cases, there will be occasions when the case is brought for shorter hearings before the court, such as after a settlement for a child or brain injured adult without mental capacity takes place.  In these cases, the lawyers for both sides present the agreed settlement to the court for the judge’s approval.

Most NHS employees’ claims are handled, defended and/or settled by NHS Resolution. In some cases, particularly where the healthcare was provided privately, the doctor or other healthcare professional may be indemnified and represented by their professional defence organisation (such as the Medical Defence Union or the Medical Protection Society).

Patients have a right to be compensated for injuries (and their financial consequences) which are caused by unacceptable errors in their medical treatment. Healthcare professionals have professional indemnity insurance, either through the NHS or their own insurers, to cover them for compensation claims in the event that they make a mistake which results in injury to a patient.