Medical Negligence Claims

We are Medical Negligence Solicitors. We deal with a wide range of compensation claims arising out of medical negligence. This includes

• injuries suffered as a result of surgery (e.g bowel or bladder injury)
• failure to diagnose injuries or illness
• delays in diagnosing cancer
• dental treatment

Your injuries may be due to mistakes at a hospital or by a GP.

LIABILITY – What you need to prove to succeed

Whether the medical practitioner has been negligent will depend on whether the treatment you received was to a standard that could reasonably have been expected. The practitioner would have a defence to your claim for medical negligence if the treatment you received was in line with the views of a responsible body of medical opinion.

You also need to prove that your injuries would not have occurred if it were not for the negligence of the medical practitioner. In some cases injury may have occurred anyway.For example the injury could be due to the actual illness being treated.

At some stage in your claim it will be necessary to obtain a medical report from a medical expert. This is to advise whether the treatment provided was negligent and whether the injury would have occurred anyway even if the negligent treatment had not taken place.

OTHER LOSSES

This may include:

• the cost of medical treatment or medication
• damage to clothing
• loss of earnings
• travel expenses to and from your GP or Hospital for treatment
• care and assistance someone has had to give you because of your injuries

Keep a record of any financial losses you have suffered as a result of medical negligence . This will include for example any wage slips or P60s. You should also keep any receipts for other losses.

TIME LIMITS

You only have 3 years to issue Court Proceedings from the date you first knew, or could reasonably have been expected to know, that you have suffered an injury caused by the fault of a medical practitioner .

This could be the date of the mistake or some time late if you did not know you had been injured at the time the mistake was made.

If Court Proceedings are not issued within 3 years of that date you would usually be unable to pursue your claim further.

The Courts can however waive this 3-year time limit if it can be shown that there was a valid reason why you did not pursue the claim sooner.