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The Cost of Medical Negligence

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Latest reports from the NHS indicate £89 billion is due to be paid for claims. What are the facts?

  • The £89 billion quoted relates to compensation which will be paid over many years. Some awards include smaller annual payments instead of one large compensation sum which are paid for more than 60 years in some cases.
  • Awards of compensation increased after a review by the Government which sets figures to calculate future expenses for a Claimant.
  • Awards are high because patients who are severely injured need a lifetime of care and therapy as well as the high cost of moving to a home which meets their needs.
  • Legal costs vary depending how soon admissions are made; if the NHS admit mistakes quickly then costs will be less.
  • Mediation can help in some cases but is often costly because medical reports are still needed to prove a case before talks begin.
  •  You only have to watch John Pilger’s cutting documentary on the plight of the NHS to understand the cost of private intervention. We encourage you to watch it and read this review in the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/nov/28/the-dirty-war-on-the-national-health-service-review-john-pilger-documentary

We all want the NHS to survive but none of our clients want to be told the NHS caused severe injury or the death of a family member. When this does happen, they are entitled to be compensated in the same way as anyone else who has been injured, for example in an accident at work. So, what is the answer?

Solutions tree

illustration of a tree branching ideas and solutions.

There is no simple solution. We would welcome your views on our ideas:

  • Ensuring only Specialist Clinical Negligence Solicitors handle claims to reduce costs for both sides and unnecessary stress for clients wrongly advised.
  • Ensure the NHS avoids making the same medical mistakes. The NHS must learn and stop future avoidable accidents happening.
  • Ensure money goes into medical care and limit the high costs of management.
  • Openness in the NHS is vital to improve services and prevent medical negligence.
  • Improve morale and staff numbers in hospitals.
  • The NHS should make early admissions to reduce legal costs

Preventing medical negligence must be the key to reducing costs. We realise claims cannot be eradicated entirely but we see the impact on families injured by the NHS every day. Doctors and nurses go into the profession to help patients. Our clients do not think about compensation when they go into hospital; they just want to be safe.

BARRATTS RECOVER OVER £85,000,000 IN COMPENSATION FOR OUR CLIENTS IN 2019!

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Quality

It has been a record breaking year for us here at Barratts. Our Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence lawyers have recovered compensation of nearly £86,000,000 on behalf of our clients. We feel this is a remarkable achievement for a firm which has only 6 litigation solicitors.

 

These settlements mean that many of our clients who suffered devastating injuries, are going into the New Year knowing that their futures are secure. They have sufficient compensation to pay for the care, accommodation, therapy and equipment that they need as a result of their injuries.

 

All of our lawyers are committed to helping injured people rebuild their lives and we are delighted that we have had such a successful year. Some of the highlights include:

 

  1. Julie Hardy concluded 3 of her claims involving children who suffered brain injuries at or around the time of their birth.

 

  1. David Tomlinson concluded claims on behalf of 4 family members who suffered devastating injuries in a road traffic accident.
  2. Ed Myers concluded a number of cases brought through the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority for injuries suffered due to a criminal act, and also a claim for a passenger who suffered an injury in a road traffic accident.
  3. Emma Zukowska achieved a large settlement for a pedestrian who was hit by a car, suffering significant injuries.

 

  1. Lesley Edwards settled a claim on behalf of the passenger on a motorcycle who suffered serious orthopaedic injuries in an accident.

 

We are proud of the successes we have achieved this year and will continue to work hard in 2020 to get the right results for all of our clients. Making a real difference to our clients’ lives is our priority.

All Barratts’ Partners Recognised For Personal Injury And Clinical Negligence Work

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Chambers is a highly reputable independent legal guide which ranks firms all over the world. In Nottinghamshire we are proud to be named as one of only 2 firms recognised for Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence claims. Barratts only has senior expert lawyers to handle this extremely complex area of law which means clients have a dedicated, specialist lawyer to advise throughout their compensation claim . This is vital for clients facing one of the most traumatic times of their lives coping with brain injury, spinal injury, cerebral palsy and fatalities.

Our partners have again all been individually recognised for their expertise which is an amazing achievement. Here is what Chambers reported:

Personal Injury Department

Sources praise department head Ed Myers for delivering an “excellent service.” He is an experienced practitioner in brain and spinal injury claims, as well as representing clients in CICA cases.

David Tomlinson is recognised as “a go-to person for top-value claims.” He is noted for acting in highly complex claims involving catastrophic injuries resulting from RTAs.

Clinical Negligence Department

Alison Brooks has experience in medical negligence inquests and cerebral palsy cases. Sources are impressed by her “good technical knowledge and experience, clear instructions and focused follow-up.”

Julie Hardy is “outstandingly personable, an extremely good communicator, very tenacious and a delightful person all round,” according to interviewees. Hardy demonstrates expertise in fatal incidents relating to mental health and negligent care cases, as well as high-value birth injury and surgical negligence matters. She is valued by clients for being “passionate about reaching the right outcome,” with one source adding: “She made it very easy to get through the case and had my best interests at heart at all times.”

The “immensely supportive, calm, organised and informative” Emma Zukowska demonstrates expertise in complex birth injury and surgical error cases. Interviewees also note: “She has very good medical and legal knowledge, as well as good judgement.”

Thanks go to all our hardworking staff who make it possible for us to support our clients coping with traumatic injuries. We also recognise the extraordinary clients we have met over many decades who not only cope with adversity but manage to overcome appalling circumstances. Compensation does help to rebuild lives by putting therapy, care and treatment in place. We are a small piece of that puzzle but making a real difference is what keeps our lawyers fighting for injured clients.

Top for Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence Again

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Legal 500 is an independent guide of law firms all over the world and recognsied as a benchmark for quality. Each year law firms are judged on their work by asking what their clients and other professionals think of them. Barratts Solicitors has consistently been ranked top for claimant personal injury and clinical negligence work. We know how important the views of our clients are which is why we never take our top ranking for granted. We can only stay at number one with an expert team of lawyers and dedicated staff to provide top quality advice every year.

Consistency

Barratts always wanted to stand out from the crowd, putting client needs 1st and offering a very personal service from a small niche firm. We are delighted that our client approach continues to be recognised by Legal 500 whose staff spend many hours ensuring only the best lawyers are named in their top tier. Many firms apply to be ranked but few are named and even less come top every year. Making a real difference to the lives of our injured clients is paramount. It is a privilege to help seriously injured clients maximise their quality of life and reach their potential, working with families during litigation and after compensation has been awarded.

 

Extending Legal Aid for Inquest Costs Rejected

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For some families, an Inquest can be an important, yet inevitably very difficult, part of the grieving process following the death of a loved one.  The purpose of an Inquest is to reach a conclusion regarding the circumstances of a person’s death and throughout the process the Coroner is guided by the evidence of key witnesses.

 Nottingham Coroner's Court

At Barratts we often receive instructions to provide legal assistance at Inquests on behalf of the bereaved families, to assist them through what can sometimes be a complex process. Legal representation also ensures that families are fairly represented and on an equal-footing with other parties (such as medical practitioners or local government organisations) who will have the financial and legal backing of the Hospital Trust or Local Authority.

Obtaining answers for the bereaved family is intended to be the focal point of the Inquest, but in circumstances where the level of trust has already been broken between the family and others involved, fairness and equality is of paramount importance. The prospect of a formal Inquest can be very daunting for those involved. Families need to be confident that they are asking the right questions of the witnesses and that they can understand the answers without being overwhelmed by medical and legal jargon. It is also important for families to be sure that the Coroner has been given all the relevant evidence from everyone involved, including themselves, to make an informed decision about the cause of death.

Whilst public bodies and other organisations will have the financial support to obtain a high level of legal representation, families often do not.  The cost involved can be the deciding factor as to whether legal representation is obtained at all.

Like most injury lawyers, we were delighted when the Ministry of Justice indicated that they would look at the possibility of introducing public funding for families at Inquests where a State organisation is legally represented.  Lawyers have long been campaigning for equality of arms between bereaved families and the State at Inquests.

Disappointingly, the Ministry of Justice announced last week that it would not introduce automatic public funding in Inquests where the State is represented.  Instead funding will only be reserved for the ‘most serious cases’.

This decision has been met with an outcry of disappointment from bereaved families and those organisations which have campaigned on their behalf for further support. Those same concerns have been previously echoed in a 2017 government-commissioned report – which reviewed the experiences of families affected by the Hillsborough disaster – and highlighted a ‘pressing need’ for families to receive publicly funded legal representation.

Legal Aid is still available in certain circumstances for representation at Inquests but its availability is very limited.  Our Clinical Negligence Partner Julie Hardy has obtained Legal Aid on behalf of two clients in recent years to provide representation at an Inquest concerning deaths occurring due to failures in medical care.  Sadly we have had many other clients who have not been granted funding; this is despite the fact that they have lost family members in the most tragic of circumstances and the public purse has funded legal representation for the organisations which the family believe are responsible for the death.

The campaign for bereaved families will continue but in the meantime the Ministry of justice have lost an opportunity to redress the imbalance between families and Government organisations. See what the Law Society Gazette has to say on our Facebook page.

Click https://www.facebook.com/pg/BarrattsSolicitors/posts/?ref=page_internal
then use the search box on the right to look for “inquests” and you’ll be able to read the post from February.

Why Does Legal 500 Rank Barratts Top?

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Excellence shown on a compass

We have already shared the news about independent legal guides, Chambers and Legal 500, naming us top for medical negligence and personal injury. Here is more insight into the Legal 500 ranking which may make you think twice about choosing a solicitor without our expertise.

More than four million users visit The Legal 500 website each year. The guide offers reliable and up-to-date information on law firms. These rankings reflect detailed analysis of law firm submissions and thousands of interviews.  Every firm ranked – and individual mentioned – in the UK Legal 500 UK Solicitors guide is ‘recommended’. As editor Georgina Stanley commented: we have a ” changing UK legal market, where diversity, value for money and the ability to make informed decisions are more important than ever.”

The reviews are from clients and professionals who know what work we do; there is no payment to Legal 500 and many firms apply each year but few are named.

Legal 500 only names a small percentage of lawyers in the UK and even fewer are at the top of their rankings. At Barratts we have been consistently top since the firm was established. Why is this?

Here is what Legal 500 reported this year:  
Barratts Solicitors fields a ‘highly respected’ and ‘first-rate’ team that ‘puts its clients at the heart of the very personal service it provides’ and ‘shows complete commitment to its cases’. The group excels in complex personal injury and clinical negligence litigation, with a strong focus in maximum severity cases, including fatal claims and cerebral palsy cases and matters with a cross-jurisdictional component.

On the personal injury side, the department has a strong track record in matters involving brain and spinal injuries, often offering an early assessment of cases and experience in securing accommodation needs, therapies and other rehabilitation measures. Ed Myers is named as a leading individual.

On the clinical negligence side, the team is especially well-versed in cases involving damages sustained at birth, often obtaining multimillion-pound awards. Clinical negligence regarding cauda equina syndrome, spinal abscess, GP negligence and surgical mismanagement form a particularly large part of the caseload.

The firm also fields a dedicated Court of Protection team led by legal executive Julie Greenwood. Personal injury expert Ed Myers and clinical negligence specialist Alison Brooks, ‘who cares passionately about her cases’, jointly lead the practice. The other key players are Julie Hardy, Debra Morris, David Tomlinson and the ‘particularly strong’ Emma Zukowska.

 

With recommendations like this and a guaranteed senior expert lawyer to personally handle your case, why choose anywhere else? If you think you may be entitled to compensation give us a call.
 

 

Top Solicitors Twice In One Week

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The 2019 editions of Legal 500 and Chambers have just been announced. These independent legal guides  base their reviews on feedback from clients, barristers and professionals who work with solicitors. Only a small number of firms in the UK are named, so making it to the top is especially hard. Our “Boutique firm is highlighted for its high-level representation of claimants” and a standout niche firm specialising solely in personal injury and clinical negligence matters.

Number 1 in a star Barratts continue to be top ranked for both our Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence work.

Our unique, personal approach is recognised by both Guides with all Partners again individually recognised. That’s an accolade we are very proud of but which is only possible with our amazing support staff.

Alison Brooks was asked about the results:

She recognises the dedication required to achieve top ranking and was quoted as saying “I feel very proud that we are consistently ranked top based on these reviews. I am reassured that we are getting it right by putting clients first, with only experienced lawyers working in the firm”.

Chambers said:

“Dedicated team of senior practitioners, offering advice to clients on diverse and complicated cases, including delayed diagnoses, negligent surgery, birth injuries and fatal claims.” Specialist head injury and spinal cord expertise was recognised with particular skill handling cross-border litigation.

 

Law Society Clinical Negligence AccreditationOur Clinical Negligence team were described as experienced with “very good insight into dealing with complex clinical issues” Interviewees additionally praise the lawyers “strong emphasis on a very personal service to clients”.

Emma’s skill in high value cases and birth injury was noted. “is extremely thorough” and “ leaves no stone unturned to get the best results for her client. She is also caring and compassionate and has excellent client care skills.”

Julie has extensive experience in complex and birth injury cases. Quotes include “great judgement and acumen in clinical negligence cases,” adding: “She has a wealth of knowledge and really engages with her clients.”

The guide admires Alison for her confidence and client care. She is “highly knowledgeable and experienced” with expertise in claims concerning the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

Law society personal injury accreditedOur Personal Injury team were recognised:

Sources say: “They’re very much working with the clients and seeing what their needs are and how they can be met in the best way.”

A client notes: “I am very happy with all aspects of how I have been dealt with; the team are all friendly, professional and personable.”

 

Ed was described as  “really excellent and a canny operator.”

David was praised for his spinal cord injury expertise; “he has very good interpersonal skills, he’s really clear with you and he has a very clear vision of how to proceed with a case”

For more information from Chambers, please visit to read our full profile  https://www.chambers.com/profile/department/6087?publicationTypeId=1&practiceAreaId=144&locationId=16355&subsectionTypeId=1

Read our next instalment later this week to see what Legal 500 says about our injury compensation legal advice.

 

What Is Conductive Education?

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It is #conductiveeducation awareness this week. For those in the dark about Conductive Education this is a very specialist and unique approach which was established in Hungary to help children with Cerebral Palsy. The original Peto Institute was set up in 1950 by Andras Peto, a doctor and neurologist who said:

‘ASK ME NOT WHAT I CAN DO FOR CHILDREN WITH CEREBRAL PALSY, BUT ASK ME WHAT THEY CAN LEARN TO DO FOR THEMSELVES’

Read more