Wednesday 28 September 2011

Medical Negligence No Win No Fee Claims and It's Complexities


Don't fall into the trap of believing what the TV adverts tell you about how simple the law is and how easy compensation claims are. In fact, compensation claims are one of the more complex areas of the law and medical negligence no win no fee litigation is certainly not to be entered into lightly. Some representatives of the NHS have claimed that recent openness between doctors and patients has actually reduced the number of patients who feel they must make medical negligence no win no fee claims as their only way of finding answers about errors in their treatment. However, patient groups tend to believe otherwise: in the wake of the Mid Staffordshire NHS trust scandal, many people feel doctors are secretive and tend to close up in the event of making a mistake. According to patient groups this closing ranks actually forces patients to have to resort to medical negligence no win no fee claims.

In reality, there are almost certainly a good deal more medical mistakes than we even notice, with little or no harm occurring as a result, leaving us entirely unaware that anything ever went wrong. At the end of the day, doctors are only humans and there will be occasions when they make mistakes, leading to harm to patients. Before patients begin litigation via a medical negligence no win no fee lawyer, it can be helpful for them to make a formal complaint. Although this won't get them any monetary compensation, it can result in an apology and an explanation. With just an explanation, the patient or their family member might feel able to move on from the incident, or they might find themselves in a stronger position to make a claim.

There's much more to the legal process than claiming that there has been both negligence and harm. The medical negligence no win no fee lawyer will ask an independent medical expert to review the patient's records in order to identify any criticism. It is not enough just to show that there was negligence. You must also be able to prove that the negligence was the direct cause of the harm and that without the negligence there would have been no harm.