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When you attend your GP or hospital, you do so to receive treatment which will hopefully enable you to get back to your normal self and able to move on with your life without further issue. However, what happens if you then receive care which causes you further problems? For many people left with the consequences of poor care, bringing a claim for medical negligence remains the only option for obtaining justice and recompense for something which simply should not have happened to them.
At its simplest, bringing a claim for compensation for injury sustained through medical negligence involves establishing that the patient was owed a duty of care; that a breach of that duty occurred; and that the breach caused an injury to the claimant.
This may sound quite straightforward, but the reality is a little different as claims are frequently complex, time consuming and expensive to investigate. It is not surprising therefore that the potential expense of a claim is often the first worry for claimants.
With legal aid funding being restricted and only available in limited circumstances, the majority of claims are generally funded via conditional fee agreements (“no-win-no-fee” style arrangements). You could therefore mistakenly come to the conclusion that legal representation is easily accessible to everyone. However, there is a difficult question for some claimants to overcome which can arise right at the point of initial contact with law firms - who will be prepared to take on my claim and represent me?
Despite having a perfectly viable claim, many claimants are unable to obtain legal representation because the costs of investigating and pursuing a claim can be disproportionate to the ultimate value of the claim, and as such some legal firms can decline taking on the case.
This scenario may become increasingly more common in light of ongoing legal reforms to implement fixed costs to all clinical negligence claims worth below £25,000. If and when those reforms are brought in, law firms will be forced to decide whether they can continue to undertake these lower value claims. Complex low value cases can see costs spiral and therefore some firms will simply not consider it proportionate to take these on. However, by not taking claims on, access to justice will be dramatically reduced for those who need it.
Here at Lanyon Bowdler, we consider that actively demonstrating our belief that justice should be accessible to all, by considering every potential claim on its own merit regardless of value, is crucial. Whilst profitability certainly matters, there is also an inherent human value in finding ways to represent those who have suffered through no fault of their own and whose last resort is to seek assistance through legal routes.
If you think you may have suffered medical negligence and would like more information about making a claim, please do get in touch via the link below or by telephone on: 0800 652 3371.
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