Expert help & advice for Medical Negligence compensation claims

This is where a medical professional fails to properly diagnose you which causes an adverse affect. For example, the failure to diagnose you could lead to complications in your injury or condition, such as knee ligament damage being irreparable beyond a certain period of time. If that period of time passes because the medical professional failed to properly diagnose the problem, you may have a claim if any complications then arise.

At the same time, a failure to diagnose could lead to a longer period of suffering which could have been prevented. If it took six months to diagnose your condition because the initial professional failed to diagnose you, and as such you have been in pain for six months unnecessarily, you may have a medical negligence claim.

If you are incorrectly diagnosed, you could be in a similar position as the above. If too much time passes before you are correctly diagnosed, meaning that complications arise, you may have a medical negligence claim.

At the same time, you may suffer adverse affects due to any treatment given for the incorrect diagnosis. To give an extreme example, what if you were operated on and had your kidney removed when you actually didn't need it removed? That's weeks of pain and scarring from the unnecessary operation, and one less kidney to live with!

If you are not treated quickly enough, or at all, after diagnosis, and this causes complications or a prolonged period of suffering, there may be a negligence claim to answer for. In theory treatment should be given as soon as it is needed, but as stretched as the NHS is, mistakes can be made. There could be an unnecessary delay in your referral for treatment, which again can complicate an injury or a condition. If you are treated and further follow up treatment is needed but is not provided in time, or at all, then there may be a negligence case to answer for if you suffer as a result.

As with an incorrect diagnosis, being given the incorrect treatment could lead to unnecessary risk of complications and prolonged suffering. As an example, if you are referred for physiotherapy when you should have had an operation to treat a problem, you could face serious further damage. This kind of incorrect treatment could result in serious complications to an injury or a condition.

We will research the law and facts that are relevant for your claim to allow us to prepare a plan of action as to how we will best fight your case. We will advise you of the prospects for success and what we consider to be the potential difficulties to overcome in your particular claim. We pride ourselves on giving honest and thorough advice, so we will never lead you on, and we will always give you the facts in simple, plain English.

We will apply for your medical records and fund any administration fees involved for obtaining them. Your medical records are a key part of the evidence for any medical negligence case, and they will often determine whether there may be a case to answer for. We give a period of 40 days for the records to be received or we may take court action to enforce a response.

Obtaining your medical records is no problem for us at all - there is a right to the records under the Data Protection Act 1998 and ultimately they are extremely useful for the case. Once we have received the records we will fully review them and form a chronology of events with witness evidence from you that matches up to the relevant parts of your records.

We will carefully select an appropriate medical expert who is qualified to produce a medical-legal report to form a crucial part of the evidence for your case, and you will meet with them for an examination. Because many cases may come down whether the care provided to you was negligent, which can often be established by obtaining an opinion from an expert in the same field, this report is important. If that expert confirms that they would have taken an obvious alternative approach, their report confirming this can be used as vital evidence for a case.

On top of that, the other reason for the report is to identify the extent of the pain, suffering, and loss of amenity you have suffered from. The value of the medical negligence claim will be primarily based on the report that the expert provides to us. The report will also help us to justify any reasonable losses you want to claim for - e.g. justifying the need to have time off work, and as such claim back for lost earnings.

Several experts may be required to bolster our evidence as much as possible. We will review any reports we received and we will ask you to agree the contents if the report is fully correct.

You should also be aware that the Defendant may ask you to see their own expert as well as the one we instruct.

We will then send a Letter of Claim to the NHS or GP involved for the case, and ask that they respond within a period of just under four months. The idea is that the other side will then respond within the time frame and either accept or deny liability. If they accept liability, the claim should be more straightforward, as this is their admission that you have a claim that they must answer to. If they deny liability, we will look to fight your case for you.