Accident and Emergency
This is often the first point of contact a patient will have with the NHS due to an illness or after an injury. The staff who practise in emergency medicine have skills in prevention, diagnosis and management.
Case reports
T -v- Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Trust
The Claimant was taken to the Accident & Emergency Department at Calderdale Royal Infirmary after being knocked down by a car
and was diagnosed as having an unstable short spiral fracture of the right femur. Her leg was placed in a splint which had to be re-applied because it was the wrong size. She was admitted to the children’s ward of the hospital. She remained in hospital but there was a failure to monitor the healing process of her leg in the splint, to the extent that poor union of the femur was achieved and her leg was bent when the bone was healed and had a boney protruberance. The bowing of the leg also entailed shortening of the femur and consequently the leg itself.
The case settled for £28,000.00 which included damages for care provided to the Claimant by her parents, the cost of some reconstructive surgery on her scarring and damages for her psychological distress, as well as for the leg injuries overall and for the otherwise would have been unnecessary.
The Sunday Times Critises Legal Costs in Clinical Negligence Claims
Wednesday, 25 March 2009 00:00 | 
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The Sunday Times reported this weekend how compensation lawyers are ripping off the NHS by making millions of pounds in legal fees.
Click here to read the full article.
Compensation and legal costs in clinical negligence claims are paid by the National Health Litigation Authority, a scheme set up to compensate victims of medical negligence and poor standards of care.
The article refers to a document, which shows that the scheme paid £264 million pounds in compensation of which £90 million was legal fees in 2007/2008.
Many clinical negligence solicitors deal with claims on a ‘no win no fee’ basis as it has become increasingly difficult to obtain legal aid for this area of work.
It is important to remember that whilst costs appear unduly high solicitors are entitled to a success fee if a claim is successful. This is to reflect the risk they take in pursuing claims. Without such a funding arrangement it would be impossible for many claimants to pursue a court action. If a claim is unsuccessful, either at trial or has to be turned down after investigation, the claimant’s solicitor under a no win no fee agreement does not receive any payment for their work.
Lawyers for the NHS must also accept some responsibility for the high costs involved in clinical negligence claims. Arguably many clinical negligence claims could be settled on a much more expeditious basis if they accepted fault at an earlier date and made reasonable offers of compensation.
Ruth Davies at our Halifax office says: “If insurers and solicitors acting for the NHS settled appropriate cases early clinical negligence claims would not be costing them so dearly. This would also benefit the claimant and their families who would receive their compensation without the need for an unnecessary long, drawn out battle.”
Notes
John Pickering and Partners LLP
About Us
Our clients are people who have suffered injury as a result of a medical accident in the UK. We are clinical and medical negligence solicitors. We handle negligence claims against hospitals, GP’s and other medical practitioners for clients across the UK.
We try to obtain maximum amounts of compensation.
We are committed to providing public funding (previously known as Legal Aid) and have a franchise from the Community Legal Services Commission. This means that they have looked at the firm carefully and approved of the way we work. They consider that we are medical negligence claims specialists. They trust us to handle medical accident claims properly.
If you are not eligible for public funding, we can offer a Conditional Fee Agreement, also known as a ‘no win, no fee’ agreement with insurance. We shall check the best method of funding your claim.
All 3 of our offices (Liverpool, Manchester and Halifax) are accredited by the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers.
Claire Horton is an experienced clinical negligence solicitor. She continues to practice as an independent funding ajudicator for the Legal Services Commission and acts on a pro-bona basis for the AvMA helpline.
We provide free initial advice to people seeking information about a potential clinical negligence claim.
If you need advice about a clinical negligence claim, contact us now for information about making a claim for compensation.