Medical Negligence Claim Solicitors

What is medical negligence?

Medical negligence, also known as clinical negligence, occurs when a healthcare professional provides treatment that falls below the standard reasonably expected of a competent practitioner, and that failure causes you harm. Every doctor, nurse, dentist, surgeon and other healthcare provider owes their patients a duty of care. When that duty is breached and you are injured as a result, you may be entitled to compensation.

Common types of clinical negligence claim include:

• Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis, including missed cancers
• Surgical errors and avoidable complications
• Mistakes with medication or anaesthesia
• Birth injuries to mother or baby
• Failure to obtain proper informed consent
• Substandard aftercare or failure to monitor a condition

What you have to prove

A medical negligence claim has two essential parts, and you must establish both:

• Breach of duty: that the care you received fell below the standard of a responsible body of medical opinion. The courts apply the Bolam test, as refined by the case of Bolitho, to decide this.
• Causation: that the substandard care actually caused your injury or made your condition worse. It is not enough to show the care was poor if the same harm would have occurred anyway.

Both elements are normally proved through independent medical expert evidence, which is why these claims require careful, specialist investigation.

How we help

We begin by listening carefully to what happened and obtaining your complete medical records. We then instruct independent medical experts, often from the same specialism as those who treated you, to advise on whether your care breached the accepted standard and whether that breach caused your injury. If the evidence supports your claim, we present it to the healthcare provider, whether the NHS (through NHS Resolution) or a private provider, negotiate firmly on your behalf and, where necessary, issue court proceedings.

What your compensation can cover

A successful claim can cover both the harm itself and its wider impact, including:

• Pain, suffering and loss of amenity (general damages)
• Loss of earnings, both past and future
• The cost of corrective treatment, therapy and rehabilitation
• Care and assistance, including help from family members
• Specialist equipment, aids and home adaptations

Time limits

You generally have three years to start a clinical negligence claim under the Limitation Act 1980. Importantly, the three years usually run from your date of knowledge: the date you first knew, or reasonably ought to have known, that your injury was connected to negligent treatment. This matters because the harm caused by negligent care is not always immediately obvious. Special rules apply to children, whose time limit runs from their 18th birthday, and to people who lack mental capacity, for whom no time limit may run while incapacity continues. Because these cases require detailed investigation, early advice is important.

Why choose MID Legal

Clinical negligence is one of the most technically demanding areas of personal injury law, and these cases are often deeply distressing. Our team handles them with sensitivity and rigour, working with respected independent experts to get to the truth of what happened. We explain each stage in plain English, pursue answers and accountability as well as compensation, and keep you informed throughout. Contact us today for a free, confidential and no-obligation assessment of your concerns.