People are often not sure whether they have grounds for a claim for clinical negligence. In simple terms, to succeed in such a claim you must show the following:
(1) “breach of duty” - this means the treatment you received fell below standard - such that no reasonable, competent and up to date clinician would have treated you in the way you were treated at that time;
AND
(2) “causation” - that the injuries you have suffered are as a direct result of the poor treatment
Each case has to be judged on its own merits. There may be times when treatment received results in harm - but if this treatment was reasonable and does not meet the test for “breach of duty”(1) it is unlikely to be negligent. Similarly for “causation”(2) to be established, it has to be shown that “but for” the poor treatment the injury would not have occurred. If there is any doubt, the claim is unlikely to succeed.
If you're not sure..
If you’re not sure whether or not you have a claim, we can look at the evidence and help you decide. Because of the strict definition and need for firm proof, we would only ever advise you to pursue a claim if you have strong grounds. Clinical Negligence claims can go on for a long time due to the amount of detailed information and evidence that has to be collected and analysed. We would never recommend pursuing a claim on anything other than the strongest grounds.
