SPECIALIST CLINICAL NEGLIGENCE SOLICITOR
The Solicitors Regulation Authority in conjunction with the Law Society operates a number of specialist professional accreditation qualifications for solicitors including The Clinical Negligence Accreditation Scheme. The development of these schemes by the Law Society was a means of championing high quality services from lawyers who could be described as experts or specialists in their field. Matters have moved on and it is now only clinical negligence solicitors who are members of this scheme who can apply for public funding (formerly known as Legal Aid) from the Legal Services Commission which cuts out more than 99% of qualified solicitors from carrying out publicly funded work. In reality there are substantially less than 1% of legal firms that actually carry out this type of work as clinical negligence solicitors with the accreditation have tended to aggregate together within large law firms that often have a specialist dedicated department.
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Membership Requirements
In order to become a member of the panel, a clinical negligence solicitor must show that they have the relevant knowledge and experience to handle complex high value claims all the way to trial if necessary. Many clinical negligence solicitor applicants fail to make the grade and as a last resort may be interviewed, if their written application does not appear to justify admission. Membership of the scheme lasts for 5 years with the necessity to demonstrate continued eligibility at the end of that period in order to be admitted for another 5 years. The conditions and requirements for membership are onerous with a requirement for dealing with a set number of relevant cases over a three year period with at least two settlements being valued in excess of 100,000 pounds. Applicants must have undertaken at least 20 hours of extra training related to clinical negligence with not less than 12 hours training dedicated to medical issues. A detailed questionnaire must be submitted by the aspiring clinical negligence solicitor panel member which in addition to showing eligibility of the applicant personally, requires information about the applicants working environment which must be demonstrated to be adequately staffed and resourced to support an expert clinical negligence solicitor.
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What is Negligence?
Negligence occurs when someone owes a duty of care to another person and breaches that duty, with reasonably foreseeable harm resulting from the breach. Medical negligence is a particular type of negligence, and is defined by the court's decision in Bolam v. Friern Hospital Management Committee (1957). It occurs when a healthcare provider fails to provide treatment to a patient with a reasonable level of care and skill.
There could be a finding of medical negligence if your healthcare provider lacked proper skills, behaved carelessly or disregarded established rules of medical practice. In addition to doctors, hospitals can be held financially responsible for the negligent actions of their employees, including nurses and technicians.
What is considered reasonable care is determined by asking how the healthcare provider's peers would have acted under the same circumstances. If, under the same circumstances, a significant number of fellow healthcare providers would have acted in the same manner, then the healthcare provider was not negligent.
Another important case with regard to medical negligence is Bolitho v. City & Hackney Health Authority (1997). According to the decision in Bolitho, there can be a finding of medical negligence if the use of an alternative method of treatment, despite support from the medical community, was not a logical choice under the circumstances.
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Three Year Period of Limitation
Legal claims for medical negligence must be brought or settled within three years of the incident which caused the patient's injury. This time limit is dictated by what is known as a statute of limitation. If the three-year time period has expired, then the patient will be barred from bringing their claim, unless one or more of the following exceptions apply :-
The patient is under the age of 18, in which case the three-year time period does not start until the patient's 18th birthday.
The limitation period began to run from the date when the injury was first discovered; in some cases, this may be several years after the negligent act occurred.
The patient suffers from a mental incapacity, in which case the time period may never start to run.
The judge exercises their discretion to override the time limit.