All of us like to trust our doctors and other medical professionals we see such as our dentists. And, happily, that trust is seldom misplaced. Unfortunately, however, there are times when even doctors can make a mistake when in treating a patient or when first making their diagnosis. When this happens, and the patient suffers distress or, worse, an injury, than the doctor or medical professional may be guilty of medical negligence. The patient would then be entitled to make a claim for medical negligence compensation.



As may be expected making a claim for compensation against a medical professional can be a long, drawn out and very involved process. Because of the complexities involved in making such a claim the claimant will need to employ a specialist solicitor to help them take the claim forward.

Unfortunately, choosing the right solicitor or lawyer can be just as difficult. Usually the best way of finding a suitable solicitor is by personal recommendation from a friend or work colleague. Word of mouth recommendations are usually the most reliable method of finding a good lawyer or compensation solicitor.

In the UK most compensation solicitors will offer to take cases on a ?no win no fee? basis. Basically, this means that the claimant will not have to pay the solicitors fees if the case is lost. However, because of this layers will not take on any case that they think they may lose; this can make finding a solicitor who will take on the case a frustrating and time consuming process.

Once a suitable lawyer has been hired the lengthy claims process begins with the lawyer firstly gathering all the available evidence. This will of course focus on the medical records of the claimant including the names of the doctors, the name of the clinic or hospital, the types of treatments used, the type of surgery performed, the medication given, the tests taken etc, all these are vital for the lawyer to be able to prove a case of medical negligence.

The lawyer or compensation solicitor will then hand all the facts of the claim over to their own medical experts for an opinion as to the extent of the malpractice. This expert will advise the solicitor if there was medical negligence on the part of the offending medical practitioner.

Eventually the solicitor will propose a settlement figure which the medical professional's insurance company may or may not accept. But, if the medical professional disputes the facts of the case or considers the proposed settlement figure to be too high than it will be necessary for the claim to be settled in a court of law.

The legal process will be a long one and there are very rarely any shortcuts that can be taken. Even in cases were there is no real dispute about the facts the hammering out of the final settlement figure can take a very long, and frustrating, time to agree.