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A Guide To Claiming With Medical Negligence Solicitors

By Stephen Hudson. Last Updated 19th September 2024. Welcome to our guide, where we’ll explain everything you need to know about securing legal help from medical negligence solicitors to make your claim.

When we go to a hospital, we expect to be taken care of. We expect our health to improve once doctors and healthcare professionals have attended to us. We don’t expect our health to deteriorate. However, there are cases when the experts get it wrong, or whereby the healthcare provider has failed as a whole. If this has happened, and you have received injuries as a result, you deserve to be compensated.

So long as you can prove that you have been injured or suffered an illness because of someone else, you have the grounds for a successful claim. You could also take legal action for compensation if you are the next of kin of an individual who does not have the capacity to take legal action him or herself, or for someone who has died due to the negligent medical treatment they have received. For more information, read on.

A medical negligence solicitor shaking a client's hand.

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How Our Medical Negligence Solicitors Can Help You

A medical negligence solicitor is a solicitor that has been trained in securing compensation for the victims of medical negligence. Medical negligence occurs when a person sustains avoidable harm due to their healthcare provider breaching their duty of care.

A healthcare provider’s duty of care involves always delivering the correct standard of care. All healthcare providers owe this duty of care towards all their patients. 

A breach of duty of care occurs when a healthcare provider delivers substandard care.

Thus, if you have an eligible medical negligence claim, our medical negligence solicitors can support you throughout each step of the claims process to help you win compensation. This includes:

  • Helping you gather evidence to show how negligence has occurred to best support your case.
  • Send legal correspondence for you to the defendant.
  • Explain legal jargon if necessary.
  • Let you know as soon as possible of any updates on the case.
  • Ensure that the compensation for your claim is valued accurately, if you are successful.
  • Ensure that your claim is submitted within the relevant time limits. 

To see whether you can receive legal assistance with our medical negligence solicitors, please contact us.

What Does The Medical Negligence Claims Process Involve?

In any case, once clients sign No Win No Fee agreements with their medical negligence solicitors, they will begin to do all of the hard work for them. They will talk you through the claims process, so you know exactly what is entailed. Plus, they will ensure that you have submitted all of the relevant information and that you have enough evidence to back up your case. In most instances, you will need to attend a medical for your injuries. However, this is something that our solicitors can easily arrange locally and at no cost to you.

It is also a good idea to take the necessary steps to gather as much evidence as possible and make sure you are prepared before you launch a claim. This includes doing the following:

  • Document financial losses – You will most likely be able to claim for expenses out of your own pocket that you have had to pay because of the injuries you have suffered. These are often called ‘special damages’ and they can include counselling costs, income loss, travel expenses, and childcare. Keep hold of any receipts or other documents that will prove your expenses.
  • Get a medical opinion – As mentioned above, you will typically be required to attend a medical for your injuries. This is something we can arrange, or you can do so yourself. This is important because the medical report that your doctor puts together will be used to determine how much compensation you will receive.
  • Collect evidence – There are lots of different types of evidence you can use in your case. This includes witness statements and photographic evidence. Gather whatever you can to strengthen your case and give you the best chance of success.

What Are The Benefits Of Working With A Medical Negligence Solicitor?

There are a number of reasons why you should search for ‘medical negligence solicitors near me’ online, as opposed to merely working with a general, non-specialist solicitor.

The main benefit is the fact that specialist medical negligence solicitors will have many years of experience in the industry and they will have been trained specifically in these types of claims.

If you were to work with someone who does not have this level of training or experience, there is a very high chance that they could make a mistake on your case, which could result in your missing out on compensation.

You do not get a second chance to launch a compensation claim, and so it really is worth working with a specialist in medical negligence compensation. This will also give you complete peace of mind so that you can focus all of your attention on your recovery.

What Types Of Claims Can Our Medical Negligence Solicitors Help With?

There are also numerous reasons that medical negligence solicitors may make claims for their clients. Here are some of the most common reasons for medical neglect and negligence:

  • The failure to interpret investigations correctly
  • The failure to take a look at the history of a patient before administering treatment
  • The failure to carry out the correct investigation
  • The failure to provide the right level of care once an individual has undergone surgery
  • Making unnecessary errors during surgery
  • The failure of the doctor to give suitable treatment for a condition
  • The failure to operate when it becomes necessary
  • The failure of healthcare professionals to provide a patient with notice when their condition is getting worse under treatment

Nevertheless, it is important to note that the type of negligence you have been victim to does not dictate whether you are eligible to claim. The most important factor is being able to prove that someone else is responsible for your suffering. If you can do this and claim within the time limit mentioned earlier, you will have a very strong chance of securing compensation.

You may be wondering how much compensation you will receive. This is where your injuries do come into consideration, as well as a number of other factors, for example, whether you will miss work while you recover. It’s important to note that medical negligence payouts do vary considerably. Every case is different, as there are many different variables that have an impact on the payout amount. You may have come across a medical negligence compensation calculator online, but please note that these tools only provide a rough estimate.

It is simply impossible to give you an accurate figure regarding how much money you will receive. Any solicitor that promises this is bending the truth and you may end up disappointed in the end. However, what we can do is give you a general overview of typical compensation payout amounts for injuries relating to most medical negligence claims. For more information about this, all you need to do is give our team a call. You can find our contact details at the end of the guide.

An empty hospital bed inside of a room within a hospital

Can I Claim On A No Win No Fee Basis?

Our advisors could connect you with one of our No Win No Fee medical negligence solicitors if you have a valid claim.

One of our solicitors could support your medical negligence claim under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). Benefits this agreement brings include the following:

  • You won’t need to pay your solicitor for their work either upfront or during the process of your claim.
  • If your claim goes ahead but is unsuccessful, then you usually still won’t need to pay your medical negligence solicitor for their services.
  • If your claim is successful, then your medical negligence solicitor will take just a small percentage of the compensation that has been awarded to you to cover their payment. This is known as a success fee and the percentage your solicitor can take is legally capped to ensure you get to keep most of your compensation.

Please contact our advisors for free to learn more about the claiming process, including the benefits of working with No Win No Fee medical negligence solicitors. To reach our team, you can:

FAQs about Medical Negligence Solicitors

What qualifies as medical negligence?

Medical negligence can be determined if the standard of care you received fell well below that expected of medical professionals or organisations. If your suffering could have been prevented if proper guidance was put into practice, you could have grounds to make a claim.

What are some examples of medical negligence?

Some examples of medical negligence include but are not limited to:

  • Giving a misdiagnosis
  • Issuing incorrect medication or making prescription errors
  • Failing to carry out proper testing
  • Conveying distressing medical news without basic respect or compassion

Can you sue the NHS for medical negligence?

Providing that the NHS failed to uphold their duty of care to you and you suffered as a result, you could be entitled to make a claim for compensation against them.

Can you sue a medical professional for emotional distress?

As part of making a personal injury claim, you can be compensated for emotional distress as well as physical harm and financial loss.

What is the average payout for medical negligence?

As every claim is different, there is no such thing as average payouts. Instead, cases are valued individually so their unique details can be taken into account.

How long do you have to make a medical negligence claim?

Personal injury claims, including those involving medical negligence, have a typical 3-year time limit.

What is a No Win No Fee agreement?

No Win No Fee agreements present an opportunity for claimants from any financial background to have a lawyer handle their case. This is because of a clause preventing claimants from being charged unless their lawyer wins their case for them. In such cases, a small success fee will be deduced from their final payout and awarded to their lawyer for their services.

How can you contact Legal Expert?

Please choose one of the contact options in the section below to get in touch with us today.

Helpful Links

Recoverable costs for clinical negligence

This takes you to the UK Government website where you will find information on a closed consultation that took place between 30th January and 2nd May 2017. The consultation regarded the fixed recoverable costs for clinical negligence claims. The government were seeking views on the proposal to introduce a mandatory system in England and Wales of fixed recoverable costs for clinical negligence claims of a low value.

Guide to claiming medical negligence

Check out our guide on medical negligence claims. Find out information on how common medical negligence is, the different types of medical negligence claims that are made, as well as how much compensation you could receive if you make a claim.

How to claim for hospital negligence

Head to our guide on hospital negligence claims. This link is full of useful information, including how to start a hospital negligence and neglect claim, what can be claimed for when making such a claim, a medical professional’s duty of care, neglect facts and statistics, and much more.

Thanks for reading our guide to acquiring the help of medical negligence solicitors to make your claim.

Connect With Medical Negligence Solicitors Near You

If you are looking to make a claim with the help of medical negligence solicitors in a specific town or city, you can check out the related guides below: