Once all of your medical records have been received and considered, the next step is to discuss the records with you in order to prepare a comprehensive statement on your behalf detailing what treatment you received, and why you believe it was negligent.

In order to prove negligence, you must be able to establish that the treatment you received fell below a standard accepted as reasonable by a responsible body of medical practitioners specialising in the area of medicine in question. The next hurdle is to prove that the negligent act actually caused you injury. This may sound straightforward, but in the vast majority of cases it is not. A doctor, or a Hospital can avoid blame if they can show that the negligent act did not make any difference to the outcome. For example, in cases where there has been a delay in diagnosing a condition or illness, a claimant must establish that the delay made the illness or condition worse. Sometimes, it can transpire that the outcome would have been the same, and therefore, although there has been negligence, there has been no loss and the claim fails. These issues are called “Liability”

We enlist the help of independent medical experts to assist in determining liability in every case. These experts are wholly independent and their role is to prepare their report for the court, and not the instructing party. Each expert instructed has been trained in the legal issues involved in clinical negligence cases. That training, together with their vast clinical experience in the relevant field enables them to consider whether any negligence has taken place and the “what if” scenario – for example, what if the claimant had been referred for treatment 12 months earlier – would it have made any difference to the eventual outcome?

In the majority of cases it is necessary to instruct at least two medical experts in a case. Usually the first expert will consider the medical records and the claimant’s statement in order to advise on whether or not that treatment was negligent. It is only if that report is supportive to the claim that we would go on and instruct a second expert to look at whether the negligent treatment caused any injury, as outlined above. This second issue is called causation, and this must be proved on the balance of probabilities as no expert is able to say with 100% confidence what would have happened but for the defendant’s negligence as it is a hypothetical situation.

If the experts agree that there has been negligence and that the negligence has caused the claimant an injury for which they ought to be compensated, it may then be appropriate to arrange for you to be medically examined by a suitable expert who can then prepare a report on the nature and extent of the injuries suffered. It is on receipt of this report that a claim can then start to be more accurately valued in terms of the likely compensation that could be awarded.

It must be noted, however, that receipt of favourable medical evidence does not automatically result in a successful case. The defendant will commission their own independent expert evidence and that may be supportive to the defendant’s case. If it is not, then that is when the defendant may admit liability. If it is supportive, then the defendant is most likely to challenge the claim, and if no compromise can be reached, it will be necessary to issue court proceedings.