What is medical negligence?
Medical negligence is a specialist area of law through which patients can obtain compensation for injury and loss suffered as a result of a medical accident. To be successful the patient must prove that the standard of medical/dental or therapeutic care they received was unacceptable by the accepted standards of the profession.
Medical negligence is much more than a doctor making a mistake. To prove that the doctor was medically negligent, your solicitor must also show that in making that mistake the doctor or dentist provided a standard of care that was unacceptable by the standards of the profession. Negligence can include an act or a failure to carry out an act (an omission). This might include, for example, a doctor performing surgery incompetently or failing to refer a patient for specialist advice where this is indicated.
Your solicitor will also need to prove a link between the alleged act of negligence and the damage or injury suffered. This link is called causation and is often the most difficult part of evidence in a medical negligence claim. For example, if a General Practitioner failed to refer a patient to hospital who was suffering from bowel pain and eventually the patient is seen at hospital and is diagnosed a suffering from cancer. Your specialist medical negligence solicitor would have to prove that any negligent delay in the referral to the specialist caused a deterioration of the cancer or that had the referral been made initially a full recovery might have taken place. Your solicitor will need to obtain expert medical advice to assist with these questions.
The legal tests of negligence and causation are difficult to establish and it is important that you seek early and urgent legal advice only from a specialist solicitor.
You should ensure that your solicitor has a Legal Services Commission franchise in medical negligence. Only firms with this franchise can offer public funding (Legal Aid) to pursue medical negligence claims. The firms are assessed for expertise and internal management standards before being awarded a franchise and their performance is measured against quality standards in an annual audit.
Specialist solicitors are usually members of the AVMA (Action for Victims of Medical Accidents) panel or the Law Society Medical Negligence panel. These bodies ensure that any solicitor on their panel has experience and expertise in dealing with a range of medical negligence claims from outset to trial, if this proves necessary.
AVMA or the Legal Services Commission can give you details of specialist solicitors in your area.
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