What is the Procedure for Claiming Clinical Negliegence ?

For the purpose of pursing a claim it is essential that all of the relevant clinical records are obtained. 

In most cases these include not only the hospital records but also the general practitioner records. You would be asked to sign authorities to have these records released. 

Once your solicitor has them, they have to be sorted into order and each of the pages has to be numbered. The reason for this is because when the clinical expert comes to go through the records, he may well make some reference to the records in his report. 

It is absolutely essential in this kind of case for your solicitor to obtain a report from an appropriate clinical expert. Sometimes they need to instruct more than one expert. 

They will send the experts the clinical records which they have obtained and the expert will then go through them. 

Sometimes the expert can provide an opinion without actually seeing you but most times you will need to attend for an examination. 

 If you are going to sue the local health trust then it is not possible for your solicitor to use an expert who is also employed by that trust. 

This sometimes unfortunately means that considerable travelling distances are involved for you to see the expert your solicitor has access to records that will locate the nearest one to you

Clinical Negligence is a highly specialised field. In nearly every case your solicitor would use a Barrister who specialises in clinical negligence cases. 

 It may be that the Barrister will wish to have a conference with you and the conference would almost certainly also be attended by the clinical expert(s). 

Whilst this again will add to your personal inconvenience, it is most important that your claim is dealt with properly. 

At the initial interview with you your solicitor may take some notes in regard to the basic history. 

These may form the basis for making an initial decision as to whether he or she thinks you have the basis for a claim..

In more complex cases they may prepare a case plan. 

This will then set out a rough  timetable for various steps to be taken and will enable you to monitor the claim.