No Win No Fee Medical Negligence

No Win No Fee Medical negligence refers to injuries and harms in treatment from the Medical profession

Every patient that is treated by a Medical Professional is entitled to receive what is known as a “Duty of Care”. A medical professional can be a Doctor, a Dentist, a Consultant, a Surgeon, a Nurse, a Technician, a Specialist or indeed anyone involved in the health care of patients.

“A Duty of Care” means that the medical professional will do their very best to look after and treat the patient correctly and in other words they will treat them to the best of their ability. When they do not perform a “Duty of Care” then there is a possibility of Medical Negligence occurring.

No Win No Fee Medical Negligence means that the Personal Injury solicitors who have taken on a possible case of a client taking a Medical Negligence claim for compensation have done so on the understanding that they will earn no fees and or costs unless the claim for compensation is won. If the claim for compensation due to Medical Negligence is lost, then the client will not pay their Personal Injury Solicitors their fees and costs. No Win No Fee agreements are sometimes known as No Win No Foal agreements or Contingency agreements.

Whereas No Win No Fee agreements are very common in Personal Injury cases for compensation for injuries suffered due to the negligence of a third party they are few and far between in Medical Negligence claims. Why you might ask is this the case? There are three major reasons for this;

1. Firstly, Medical Negligence claims for compensation due to a lack of a duty of care can take much longer than a typical Personal Injury Claim for compensation. It is not unknown for Medical Negligence claims to go on for five years or more. Most personal Injury claims are settled within a two-year period.
2. The costs involved in a No Win No Fee Medical Negligence claim can be considerably higher than a Personal Injury claim for compensation. It is usual in a Medical Negligence claim for the Medical Negligence Solicitors to get an expert medical opinion from a renowned medical expert before commencing the claim. The expert will more than likely be out of the jurisdiction and the cost of such an opinion may be in the £3000 to £5000 bracket. Your Medical Negligence Solicitor would have to be pretty certain of the claim for compensation before agreeing a No Win No Fee claim.
3. Most of us including your Medical Negligence Solicitor have little or no medical knowledge. Time and time again the medical opinion will come back from the Medical expert saying that there is no case to answer of a lack of “Duty of Care”. To the lay person, the client and to the Medical Negligence solicitor it might have appeared to be a nailed-on claim. Yet the expert has said clearly no it is not. So, your Medical Negligence Solicitor is going to weigh up the facts very carefully before offering a No Win No fee Medical Negligence agreement!

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