Medical Negligence

The field is very broad, and every situation is unique. Our experienced team of lawyers have successfully guided hundreds of people through the process and secured millions of pounds of compensation that they have been able to use to improve their quality of life.

We have built up substantial experience over decades in particular:

Birth Injury claims

Birth injury claims cover a wide area, with differences between how they affect the baby or the mother.

The most common birth injuries affecting children are:

• Cerebral Palsy which affects muscle movement and motor skills.
• Still birth and neonatal deaths; while these can occur in healthy babies from unknown causes, some birth injuries can be fatal.

The most common birth injury affecting mothers is perineal tearing. While experiencing a tear during childbirth is not always cause for a legal claim, if a doctor or a midwife missed, mis-diagnosed or failed to treat your injury, you may have grounds for a claim.

Delayed cancer diagnosis

Cancer is more likely to be treated successfully if it is detected early. However, if you have been given a delayed cancer diagnosis or a cancer misdiagnosis, you may be able to bring a medical negligence claim.

Failure to prevent suicide 

Healthcare providers have a responsibility to protect life wherever possible. If your loved one has died because of substandard mental health care we will be able to investigate your claim and support you through the inquest process.

Negligent gallbladder surgery

While there have been many medical advances in treatment for gallbladder conditions, errors do happen. During surgery, the bile duct can sometimes be injured and, if this remains undetected, it can lead to a major bile leak and further infections.

Failure to diagnose or treat sepsis

Infections happen all too frequently and there is no doubt that risks cannot be eradicated completely. However, you can pursue a claim if it can be proved that sepsis was missed and/ or the clinicians failed to treat sepsis.

Medical misdiagnosis

There are two main types of misdiagnosis:

• Incorrect or missed diagnosis, when a medical professional diagnoses you with the wrong condition or fails to diagnose any problem at all.
• Late diagnosis, when your condition is identified late, causing delays in treatment.

A misdiagnosis can be made by any NHS or private medical professional who is responsible for diagnosis.

Surgical claims

Surgical claims cover a broad area but typical fall into one of two categories:

• Surgical mistakes, when a medical professional makes a mistake in surgery that causes you long-lasting pain and suffering.
• Consent; except for emergencies, all surgeons need to obtain the patient’s agreement to have surgery in advance. If you have a surgical procedure without giving your consent and experience injuries thereafter, you may be able to make a claim.

Examples of cases we have worked on recently include:

• We secured an eight-figure sum for a child who contracted meningitis and suffered a cardiac arrest in hospital. The hospital admitted a breach of duty and accepted that their delayed treatment led to the cardiac arrest and subsequent brain damage

• Winning a six-figure sum for a child who suffered a shoulder dislocation (Erb’s Palsy) at birth.

• Negotiating a seven-figure sum for a client with a common respiratory illness that worsened and, because of a delay in treatment, their brain was starved of oxygen.

• Securing a six-figure sum for a diabetic patient under the care of the community, in compensation towards a limb amputation.

• Advising the family of a nurse whose Tuberculosis went undiagnosed for many years, representing them at the inquest and making a claim on their behalf.

• Making a successful claim under Section 7 of the Human Rights Act 1998 against a trust who had breached their duty of care to a person who, having attempted suicide, was discharged under the watch of the Crisis Team but took their own life.

You must start your legal claim within 3 years from when the incident happened or when you first realised you had suffered an injury. In the case of children, the 3-year limit does not start until their 18th birthday.

Whether you or a loved one has suffered injury or loss as a result of negligent medical care, misdiagnosis or inappropriate treatment, our highly qualified team are here to help guide, advise and support you every step of the way. Clients have praised our approach, saying that we show “great compassion and understanding of the emotional difficulties” faced in such cases, and that “nothing is too much” for us. 

Medical negligence claims can take a long time to come to fruition. A lot of that time is spent gathering evidence about your issues and situation and understanding how your injuries have impacted your life, and whether there will be long term consequences.

Once we have both decided to work together on your case, we will send you some paperwork to sign. This forms a contract between us. We will ask you for identification records and ask you to sign a document that gives us permission to get information about you from other authorities that will help us in your case.

We obtain your medical records, seek witness statements from you or other parties, and employ expert witnesses to give opinions that will help to build a picture about your claim. You may need to visit a range of specialists on our recommendation. This will all help to build a picture about how your injuries occurred, or are progressing, and will help us assess what help you may need in the future.

We settle most cases out of court, but if your claim must go to court, we will support you fully throughout.

Unlike a lot of other law firms, we will keep in touch with you every month, even if your case takes years.

You will be assigned a case handler at the outset of your case. Our in-house nurse will give a clinical assessment of your medical records when we get them and, if we think you have a claim, with your permission we will start to investigate what happened.

To prove your medical negligence case, we must show that your doctor or other medical professional has been negligent in their care of you. If we take your case, we will gather evidence in support of your claim and aim to help you access compensation as quickly as possible.

Ranked in legal directories as among the best medical negligence solicitors in the country, we have more than 75 years’ experience supporting clients, often in extremely challenging and complex cases.

Practice Head, Andrew Cragg holds the highly respected Law Society Clinical Negligence accreditation and is an AvMA (Action against Medical Accidents) Panel member.  Helen Murphy holds the Law Society Personal Injury accreditation and is classed as a Senior Litigator with APIL (The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers) 

In addition, our private client and Court of Protection team assist clients in arranging Wills, Grants, Personal Injury Trusts and Deputyship Orders. 

We have rigorous risk assessment procedures, contributed to by our in-house nurse, ensuring that we are not providing clients with false expectations or unnecessarily incurring costs in progressing unmeritorious matters.

We continue to hold a Legal Aid franchise and have been reaccredited by Headway UK  as Gold Standard, in which we have to show that we have experience in personal injury litigation, in the context of T.B.I. and its consequences.
 

Our fees and costs
Our legal cost and the money that we pay to medical experts, the Courts, barristers and other professionals along the long journey of your claim are covered by us – if we lose your case, or by the people you are suing for your injuries if you are successful.

There will be exceptions though, and these are covered in detail in documents that we will send you at the start of your case that form the contract between us. These exceptions are really around situations where you have broken the contract between us.

If you are successful and we have a no win, no fee arrangement between us, then the regulations mean that we can charge you no more than 25% of your compensation award as a “success fee”.

No win, no fee

We may be able to make your claim on a no win no fee basis. Should your claim succeed then most of your legal fees will be covered by your opponent with the rest paid from your settlement. You will not pay anything towards your legal costs if your claim is unsuccessful.

To make a no win no fee claim, you need to enter into an agreement that is linked to a suitable insurance policy. The cost of the insurance policy you would pay is covered in the money you get at the end of your case and is only payable if you win your case. We will explain this in more detail before we start your claim.

Recent feedback direct from clients includes:

• "While I was hugely disappointed in the attitude of the Trust, the team at Langleys were fantastic throughout. They provided me with so much support at a difficult time, and when the proceedings finally came to an end, it almost felt like saying goodbye."
   
• "Exceeded all expectations and was first class from the outset."

• "Thank you for all your hard work in dealing with my case."

• "We received excellent service with compassion to us and the case."

• "100% superb service, so helpful and caring."

• "I cannot fault Andrew Cragg. He dealt with this matter so professionally and is so considerate and kind."

• "Thank you so much for all the help and support you gave us through the last 4 years.  We cannot praise you enough for the time you have spent on her case and supporting her. We fully understood this was not a straightforward case.  She is pleased with the outcome and so happy she can now put this behind her and move on. "

• "I am very grateful for all your attention given to my mum's case and must say I am immensely pleased you have brought the case to a satisfactory conclusion."

• "You did everything in your power to get this resolved in my favour so thank you for all your hard work and all the best for the future."

• "I would like to take the time to say a heartfelt thank you from myself and my family to you in particular for the work, time, thought and care you put into my case."  

• "Without you we would not have been able to do right by Dad. Thank you for everything."

• "You helped incredibly to compassionately guide us through the legal process, and we are very grateful for that help."