Funding a medical negligence claim

If you have suffered personal injury as a result of medical negligence, you may wish to pursue a compensation claim. However, it is important to understand that the funding available for medical negligence cases is not quite the same as it is in most other areas of personal injury.

Costs
Medical negligence cases can be extremely complex and difficult to pursue. They nearly always involve a lot of specialist knowledge and evidence to prove, which can be costly.

When you first come to us, your claim will be screened by a qualified nurse and specialist medical negligence solicitor. If we believe you have a good chance of success in your claim, the personal injury solicitor will need to obtain copies of your medical notes and any hospital records relating to your treatment. Following that, a brief screening report will need to be written by an independent medical expert. Read more about the medical negligence claim process.

Costs, known as disbursements, will have to be paid to these people who are involved in gathering evidence for your case. A fee of around £100.00 will be charged by the GP and hospital for supplying your notes. At this point, it may be necessary to obtain an independent expert or specialist's report, which is likely to cost around £350.00.

The personal injury solicitor that we assign to you can then consider this evidence and provide clear advice on how your case should proceed. If the prospects of success are good, then a claim can be made against the appropriate authority.

If liability is accepted, your solicitor should be able to recover these initial costs fairly quickly. This is called an interim payment.

No win, no fee
It will then be possible to accept your medical negligence claim on a no win, no fee basis. This means that if your claim is unsuccessful, you will not have to pay the fees of the personal injury solicitor representing you. On your request we will also take out after-the-event (ATE) insurance, which protects you from all costs incurred from this point onwards, as well as your opponent's fees.

If your medical negligence claim is successful, you will not be responsible for any costs or fees whatsoever and your opponent will pay for them all. No deductions will be made from the compensation you receive, meaning that you keep 100% of your compensation.

Getting medical negligence compensation
If you believe you have suffered a personal injury because of medical negligence and you wish to make a compensation claim, we may be able to help. Our personal injury solicitors are extremely skilled in medical negligence claims and excel at obtaining maximum compensation for their customers. Read more about medical negligence solicitors.

To find out more about claiming compensation after a medical error, please telephone 0800 10 757 95 or complete an online claim form.