Clinical Negligence

Anyone who has suffered as a result of medical treatment can potentially bring a claim. Whether the claim is for hospital negligence, GP negligence, negligent chiropractic or cosmetic treatment, a pharmacy error or a dentist’s mistake – it may be possible for you to bring a claim.

In order to prove a medical negligence claim for compensation, you must be able to show that:-

• The treatment you received fell below a medically acceptable standard (This is called “liability” or “breach of duty”
• The treatment directly resulted in the loss or damage you suffered (This is called “causation” or “avoidable damage”)

If we agree to investigate your potential claim, we would instruct independent medical experts to comment upon the above points.

To bring a medical claim you must succeed on both “liability” and “causation” as set out above.  To assess the strength of any medical claim we will need the following information:

• The name of the medical professional to which the complaint relates
• The date of the allegedly negligent treatment and if that was a long time ago, the date (or approximate date) you first became aware that the treatment provided might have been negligent
• Summary of the alleged medical or dental negligence

Find out with a free assessment interview

If you have a potential claim arising from a medical mistake then there are many options available to fund your case.

“No Win, No Fee” (Conditional Fee Agreement)

We are able to offer a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) funding on most, but not all, cases.  We can act under this arrangement where we are satisfied that any potential claim has sufficient prospects of success.

Public Funding

Community Legal Service public funding (previously known as Legal Aid), is still available for some medical negligence cases – generally, those cases involving babies who sustained an injury during or immediately prior to delivery.  If you are eligible, then the case may cost you nothing to pursue.  Harding Evans is one of the very few Gwent-based firms able to undertake legally aided medical negligence claims.

Legal Expense Insurance

Some home contents/car/credit card insurance policies offer legal expenses insurance to fund a solicitor to take legal action on your behalf. This can mean that your case can be pursued at no cost to you.

Union

If you are a member of a Union, sometimes the terms of your membership will include free legal cover.

Private Funding

We may be able to carry out some investigation for a fixed fee. Contact us to discuss your private funding options.

Generally, legal action in a potential medical negligence claim must commence within three years of you receiving treatment, although there are certain circumstances where this may not be the case:

• If the claim involves a child under 18, then the claim must be made before their 21st birthday
• If the claimant is suffering from some form of disability, such as cerebral palsy, then there may be no time limit to make a claim
• If the claim involves treatment received more than three years ago, but you only discovered the negligence relatively recently – for instance a delay in diagnosis of a condition or discovery of a retained object – we may still be able to proceed if you are within three years of your “date of knowledge” that you may have been negligently treated