Your legal advisors will explain the process to you at each stage. In order to begin your medical negligence claim, it is necessary to complete a Claim Form, Particulars of Claim and a Schedule of Loss.

These documents will be prepared on your behalf by your legal advisors. It is at this stage that a barrister is often instructed to advise on the merits of the claim, on the basis of the evidence available. The barrister may then prepare the documents needed to issue proceedings.

Once you claim has been issued and logged at Court, the next step is to send copies of the documents to the defendant, following which they will need to prepare a Defence and a Counter Schedule of Loss, detailing where they dispute the facts of the claim and the figures claimed by way of compensation.

Once the defence has been received, the Court will decide the way in which the claim ought to be dealt with. This is known as “Allocation”. The claim will be allocated to a particular track depending on its value and complexity. Most clinical negligence claims are allocated to the Multi track.

The next step is to plan a timetable of events with the defendant and the court so that the compensation claim is dealt with as efficiently as possible. This is known as the “Directions” stage. In summary the court will issue directions for the exchange of witness statements and experts’ reports for example. Thereafter, in some case, it may be appropriate for the experts from both sides to meet and try to narrow the areas of disagreement between them. Once the independent expert evidence has been finalised, then it is necessary to prepare a final Schedule of Loss setting out the exact losses claimed, such as loss of earning and care needs. The defendant will then be required to prepare their final Counter Schedule of Loss.

Depending on the nature and value of your claim, the court may direct that the parties have a meeting to discuss the claim and to try and reach a settlement so that it is not necessary to proceed to a full trial. If not, or the parties are not able to reach any compromise, the claim will be listed for trial. At the trial, the judge will listen to the legal advisors, the parties and their medical experts, and decide whether or not the claimant’s case succeeds or fails. If the claim is successful then the judge will also decide on the amount of compensation that ought to be awarded in the circumstances.