SCREENING FOR CLINICAL NEGLIGENCE

When things go wrong with your clinical care you have a choice of options to make things better. You may want compensation for care needs or to get treatment to fix the problem. You may want the professionals to understand and learn from their mistakes. The first step is a screening level one from an experienced medical expert. 

The screening level one report is free and gives you the tools to decide upon the next step. You email the expert with a short description of the problem and what you want to achieve. The expert will respond in a few days with what the medical and legal issues are and your options. You may then wish to get a screening level two report to look at all the evidence. 

The screening level two report costs £120 and is a full review of all the medical records and any other evidence. The doctors cannot charge you for providing copies of these records although you may have to wait for a month or so. The screening level two report takes about 14 days to write and will give you a compete picture of the case. At this stage you may wish to get a full medical report or to instruct a clinical negligence lawyer.

The clinical negligence lawyer can only take on a case if you pay for it or they believe that it is likely to win. The no win no fee system (CFA insurance) is limited to the best cases with the strongest evidence and the highest payouts. Only 1% of all clinical errors are successfully litigated mostly because the cost of clinical negligence is so high. Most people who have excellent cases are unable to get a lawyer. 

To instruct a clinical negligence specialist you need the material issues, the type of specialist who can deal with those issues and a summary of the notes. The screening level two report has this information so you can approach a specialist directly. The cost is likely to be around £600 subject to negotiation. The turnaround averages 3 months and all reports contain errors. 

Once you have a specialist report you may wish to contact a clinical negligence lawyer again. Having a specialist report that supports your case means that their costs are lower and your chance of winning is higher. You may prefer to be a litigant in person and issue the claim yourself with support when you need it. A complaint including the report will often trigger a full investigation and this may be a better outcome. 

There are 7 different systems to regulate doctors and most are accessible at no or limited cost. There are many experts and lawyers who are happy to have a chat about different approaches. They will normally advertise that they are happy to work with litigants in person. Some will make a small charge for this service and others will be happy to offer a chat for no charge.