Clinical Negligence

Clinical and Dental Negligence Cases

Clinical or dental negligence is defined as doing something which no reasonably competent doctor or dentist would do in that specific medical or dental speciality. The definition comes from the case of Bolam and has become known as the “Bolam Test”. In order to satisfy the Bolam Test it is necessary to obtain a report from a doctor or dentist of the same speciality as the doctor or dentist treating the claimant.

Causation is often a bigger hurdle than negligence since there is always a medical problem existing which drives a patient to seek treatment in the first place so we have to compare what did in fact occur with what would have occurred in terms of the outcome to be expected if the negligence  had not occurred. In other words,  what injury and what losses  were caused by the negligence. It is only those outcomes made worse by the negligence which result in a successful claim. Proving negligence alone is not sufficient.

We fund these cases under no win no fee arrangements.  However in many cases we cannot assess whether there is a case until the treatment has been reviewed by medical experts. We are likely to ask you to fund the obtaining and review of the records. We can let you know what this is likely to cost at the free initial appointment.

When the treatment records are obtained and we have reviewed them if the case is strong enough we place the claim onto a no win no fee agreement. We insure all clinical negligence cases and our insurer has a claims assessment panel consisting of 16 medical personnel in differing medical specialities. If the claims passes the assessment process we then obtain  full reports from an expert dealing with negligence and an expert dealing with the effect of the negligence.

Contact us to find out more about clinical and dental negligence compensation claims.