MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE SOLICITORS - CLINICAL CLAIMS
Thousands of clinical compensation claims are initiated every year in the United Kingdom by medical negligence solicitors on behalf of people from all walks of life. A multitude of operations and procedures are executed successfully however a small percentage do go wrong, laying the grounds for a compensation claim.
Healthcare practitioners, which include consultants, doctors, dentists, nurses and technicians are not judged by absolute standards but are compared to others in the same area of practice. A doctor will not be held to be negligent simply because treatment failed if a substantial body of other doctors would have acted in the same manner provided that the treatment offered was logical. A medical negligence solicitor acting on behalf of a claimant will attempt to prove that the treatment fell short of that offered by other qualified healthcare professionals working in a similar location.
Surgery has the highest incidence of medical negligence whilst gynaecology and obstetrics accounts for almost half of all claims. Compensation awarded to a claimant includes pain and suffering, loss of income and the cost of personal care together with all manner of other reasonably incurred expenses. The value of pain and suffering is assessed by a judge with reference to the extent of the injury, the recovery time and whether or not there are any long term symptoms. In reaching a decision on the amount of compensation to award, a judge will consider representations put forward by medical negligence solicitors acting on behalf of both the claimant and the defendant, based on awards in previously decided cases, tempered by government guidelines and personal experience.
Legal Aid is available for medical negligence solicitors to pursue a compensation claim. Public funding is means tested however only the applicants own assets and income are considered which means that in addition to eligible adults, almost all children will qualify. Only solicitors who are members of the Law Society specialist clinical negligence panel are allowed to represent clients using public funding which represents less than 1% of solicitors in practice in the UK.