Your injuries are not the only thing you can claim compensation for. Your life can be affected in many different ways as a result of the harm you have suffered. This can lead to you incurring a variety of other losses and expenses. If these losses have arisen as a direct consequence of the harm, you can include them in your claim.

Some of the most common losses include:

• Medical expenses and treatment costs
• Loss of earnings
• Care and assistance
• Travel expenses

Losses which are anticipated to occur in future can also be included in a compensation claim. These future losses, like all losses, must be supported by evidence and must have been incurred as a result of your injuries. For example, if the harm you sustained will mean you require long-term care, expenses relating to this could be added in your compensation claim.

In most cases, Truth Legal can act for you under a ‘No Win, No Fee’ agreement. This means that, in all but very rare circumstances, you will not have to pay our fees if your claim is unsuccessful.

With a successful outcome, some of our fees are paid by a portion of your compensation award. This is the normal way in which No Win, No Fee agreements operate. It is also usual for most of our fees to be paid by the other party or their insurers.

How a claim is funded is always explained in more detail before your claim begins. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to know more.

As a general rule, you must start your clinical negligence claim within 3 years of your knowledge of the negligence alleged.

If this time limit expires, you could be prevented from ever bringing a negligence claim in relation to it. However, this time limit can be altered by certain circumstances. One example would be if you only found out you had been the victim of negligence after the date on which it occurred. So if a negligent misdiagnosis occurred several years ago, and you have only now become aware that a serious medical condition was overlooked, the 3-year time limit will begin from the date when you found out about the negligence.

There are other rules which can affect the time limit.

• Children – if a child is the victim of clinical negligence the 3-year time limit does not start to run until the child’s 18^th
• Death of claimant – If the claimant dies before their claim is brought or finished, the 3-year limit runs from the date of their death so long as their death occurs within 3 years of their date of knowledge of negligence.
• Capacity – if the claimant does not have the ability to understand that they have suffered negligent treatment. In this situation until they regain the capacity the 3-year rule does not apply.

If you are thinking of claiming compensation for clinical negligence, or if you are concerned it might be too late, contact us as soon as possible so that we can advise you.

We all know the difficulties faced by the NHS and its staff. In general, the NHS provides an excellent service to the vast majority of its patients.

However, when receiving medical treatment, advice, or a diagnosis, you are entitled to a professional and quality service.

You have a right to seek redress if your health has been affected by the negligence of someone else. It means you have suffered harm through no fault of your own. You placed your trust in their professional skills and they let you down.

Ordinarily, claims for injury compensation must be made by the person who has been injured.

There are situations, however, where you can bring a claim on someone else’s behalf in the capacity of their ‘Litigation Friend’. These are cases where the injured person:

• Is a child – under the age of 18
• Is someone without mental capacity – whether this has been caused by the negligence in question or not

Or

Where the victim of the negligence has passed away. It may be possible for a claim to be brought by the people who are dealing with the late person’s estate – or by certain people if they have suffered loss due to the late person’s death.

If you are thinking of bringing a claim on behalf of someone else, please make us aware of this so that we can advise you fully on your situation.

The first step is to arrange an initial consultation with us. This will be free and there is no obligation for you to proceed any further with your case.

Provided you wish to proceed,

we will provide you with initial advice including whether a complaint is likely to be suitable process, arrange funding for your claim, arrange for access to your medical records, obtain other evidence to support your claim including witness statements and independent medical opinion on the standard of the treatment you received. We will arrange for you to be examined by our own medical experts.

Once we have sufficient evidence of there having been negligence we will make the claim to those responsible.

Most claims will settle at this point with offers being made by those responsible for the negligence. If a settlement is not reached then sometimes we may issue court proceedings on your behalf to secure the compensation you deserve.

Responsibility

With clinical negligence cases, the responsible party will usually be the relevant NHS trust, or private healthcare provider. If the harm caused to you was through the conduct of a member of staff, it is extremely rare for them to be sued directly. If they were employed by the NHS trust or private healthcare provider – and they were negligent during the course of their work – then their employers will be ‘vicariously liable’ for their conduct. This means that the employers are held responsible for the standard of work of their employees.

Proving negligence

When receiving a claim, the other party will indicate whether they are disputing fault. If they do, there are several things which you and your legal representatives must prove:

1. That their standards of care fell below those required
2. That this failure caused the harm which you are claiming for

For Point 1, the required standard of care that a medical professional must meet is that of an ordinarily competent medical practitioner, as considered by a responsible body of medical opinion. You might see this referred to as ‘the Bolam test’.

Point two is often termed ‘causation’. To be successful, you must prove that the alleged negligence was the cause of the harm for which you are claiming compensation. Depending on the circumstances, this can be difficult. For example, if you were already suffering from a medical condition, there are challenges of proving that certain actions (or a lack of action) caused your condition to worsen.

Medical evidence

Medical evidence is crucial to establishing that harm has been caused through clinical negligence. This involves consulting an independent medico-legal expert for their opinion on the harm you have suffered, often by arranging a medical examination with them.

Medical evidence is important even if the other side accepts full responsibility for your injuries. It acts as proof of the extent of your injuries themselves and forms the basis for valuing your compensation claim.