Accident and Emergency

Medical Negligence is a legal term where a medical professional fails to uphold their standard of care towards a patient causes them injury or harm (including complications with pregnancies or birth). Medical Negligence can include a poor treatment plan or a diagnosis which prescribes the wrong medication. Essentially, there may be a claim where a procedure has not gone quite to plan, and it is evident that there has been something overlooked by your medical professional in giving you treatment.

 

Time constraints for medical negligence claims

Generally, a claim must be started within three years from when the negligent event occurred, or the date of when you initially discovered you had suffered harm or injury, there are exceptions to this rule so it is always worth checking. If the case involves children, then there are no time limits imposed on a claim until they reach 18. Additionally, a person who is deemed to be lacking the mental capacity required to claim by themselves will not be subject to time limits.

 

How we can help

We would appoint a suitable specialist to evaluate the situation and determine what happened, and how it has affected you. The choice of whether we need to appoint a specialist to assess how the matter has affected you mentally will also be considered. If there is any mental trauma (such as frustration by not doing something you would wish to do) would be considered. We would hope that the other side would agree with our experts’ findings without any further costs or investigations and agree to a series of interim payments followed by a final settlement. Their reports will form the basis of any claim and your caseworker will discuss their findings with you. To start a claim simply create a case via the link at the top of this page.

 

Our legal team would appoint a medical consultant to assist them in creating a claim. Please note we make no commission from these referrals but do need clients to open a case so that we can appoint them to assist. These consultants are privately contracted by us (and therefore their cost would be classed as a disbursement). The ultimate aim would be to get the trust to admit liability and confirm that your current condition has been left damaged in some way, admit the error and agree to a series of interim payments followed by a final settlement. The medical consultants will assess the entire situation. To address the claim element for mental trauma then we would suggest an additional report from our psychological team.

 

The claim will consider two types of damages:

• General damages- this compensates the victim for the pain and suffering endured, and for the loss of enjoyment of life as a result of the negligent act.
• Special damages- this compensates the victim for any personal costs incurred as a result of the negligent act. It can also cover any additional costs required in the future. This includes:
  • Costs of medication and treatment;
  • Loss of income and earnings; and the
  • Cost of additional medical apparatus.

 

The case of Barnet v Chelsea and Kensington Hospital Management Committee serves as the authority for the proposition that an open accident and emergency (A&E) facility is under a duty to treat, or at the very least assess an injured patient, clients may wish to read this before commissioning our help.

 

To gain our assistance you need to open a case, this is done by taking advantage of our free consultation service, activated by the link at the top of the page, should you wish to start a case the caseworker will send you the suitable payment link. Please note your caseworker can only give generic advice, their role is to prepare your details for handling by our legal team and medical consultant and to act as your point of contact, they will also issue you with your Password and PIN, these will be needed to log onto your client dashboard. From your dashboard you will be able to manage and view every aspect of your case, upload documents, images, files etc.