Making medical negligence claims

To make successful medical claims you need to prove two main elements before proceeding. The requirements are negligence and causation:

Negligence

This would be evidence showing that the treatment or care given to you fell below medical standards. A particular practice can not be called negligent if a reputable body or even a small body of doctors approve of the methods used.

Causation

We must prove that it was the actions taken by the medical professionals which caused the injuries.

Many times it is very obvious but you get difficult cases where the doctor's action could only be a possibility. In order for medical negligence claims to succeed we must prove that injuries were caused by negligence.

In a few cases the patient may be able to provide evidence showing that it was the negligence which caused the injury but medical evidence shows that even if the correct procedure had been carried out the initial result would have been the same. This normally arises when a delayed diagnosis is the cause of a fatal illness. There are other cases where the claimant can prove the negligence but medical records show that the procedure carried out is not the cause of the injury. The claimant would not get compensation without proving that it was the negligence which caused their injury.

How the medical records are obtained

Getting medical records to prove that negligence took place is something only a solicitor can do. The first step a solicitor will take when investigating the claim would be to obtain the records from each hospital that you have attended as well as the records held by your doctor. The solicitors at times do find that many authorities do not react to releasing medical records well. This causes a delay in information gathering but if they clearly refuse then we can ask the court to take actions.

Once we have all the records the next step would be placing all the treatments into order of date. Because the records come unorganised we might have to sit down with the claimant and go through the dates and make sure that nothing is missing and everything is correct.

Getting another medical consultation

For us to prove that the method used by the medical professional is incorrect we need to get a second opinion by another expert. They will examine your medical records and statements advising whether or not there was negligence, if so then it was that which caused the injuries you sustained. It may take some time to find a medical expert who is reputable and would give an unbiased view towards the case.