Medical Negligence Claims

How we can help

Our team of specialist lawyers have years of experience in making medical negligence claims, including:

• NHS hospital negligence claims;
• Private hospital negligence claims;
• GP negligence claims;
• Dental negligence claims; and
• Negligence resulting in death claims.

NHS hospital negligence claims

We can help you to recover compensation for mistakes made in A & E, for delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis, for missed fractures or torn ligaments, for failure to spot a serious infection like sepsis or meningitis, for surgical errors or mistakes in treatment, for failure to spot cancer, heart disease or another life threatening condition, for mistakes made in the administration of medication and for neglectful care by staff leading to things like pressure sores and abscesses.

We are particularly experienced in dealing with orthopaedic negligence claims, cardiology negligence claims, ophthalmology negligence claims and claims involving nerve damage.

Private hospital negligence claims

We can help you to recover compensation for incorrect or delayed diagnosis, for failure to spot a pre-existing or acquired infection, for incorrect treatment or mistakes made during planned operations, for poorly performed cosmetic surgery and aesthetic treatments and for failure to provide adequate aftercare.

GP negligence claims

We can help you to recover compensation for mistakes made in diagnosis, failure to refer you to a specialist or to make a referral as quickly as needed, failure to provide you with appropriate and effective treatment for a manageable condition and for prescribing you with inappropriate or dangerous medication.

Dental negligence claims

We can help you to recover compensation for the misdiagnosis or late diagnosis of an oral health related condition such as gum disease or oral cancer, failure to spot and treat an abscess or other serious infection, mistakes made in dental surgery, mistakes made in restorative and orthodontic treatment and inadequate oral hygiene advice or dental radiology services.

Negligence resulting in death (fatal accident) claims

We can help you to recover compensation in any NHS negligence or private medical negligence claim which has resulted in the death of a loved one, whether this was because of mistakes made in diagnosis, treatment, surgery or in-patient or outpatient aftercare.

How long is a claim likely to take?

The length of time it takes to resolve your claim will depend on a number of factors, including how severely you have been affected by what has gone wrong and whether the NHS Trust, GP surgery or private medical provider you accuse of wrongdoing admits that they were at fault and therefore liable to accept your claim. Some cases can be resolved within a matter of months, while others can take upward of a year or even several years to deal with.

Whichever category your claim fails into, you can rest assured that we will do all we can to progress your case as quickly as possible and where liability is admitted at an early stage we will always push to secure you a payment on account of the compensation you will eventually receive (known as an interim payment) in order to help cover your living costs and ongoing care needs as you wait for your claim to be settled.

In all cases we will also push to secure you funding for any rehabilitative treatment or rehabilitation support that you require and which may help to improve your overall prognosis.

How much compensation am I likely to receive?

The amount of compensation you receive will also depend on a number of factors, the most important of which are:

• the severity of your physical injury or illness or psychological trauma;
• the likelihood of you being able to make a full or partial recovery;
• the likelihood of you needing ongoing or possibly lifelong care; and
• the prospects of you being able to return to any form of paid employment where you are of working age.

We have experience in dealing with claims worth just a few thousand pounds up to claims worth several millions of pounds.

Time limit

To bring a medical negligence claim you will usually need to commence legal proceedings within three years of realising that something has gone seriously wrong. This may sound like a long time, but there is a lot that needs to be done to get a claim ready and it is therefore always best to seek legal advice as soon as you can and while events are still fresh in your mind.

When making a claim on behalf of a child it is important to be aware that the three year time limit does not begin to run until they turn 18, meaning that a claim can be made at any point prior to their 21 st birthday. It is also important to appreciate that there is no time limit for making a claim on behalf of someone who lacks mental capacity.

Why choose Step Legal Solicitors?

As medical negligence specialists, we understand the devastation that can be caused by clinical malpractice and the uphill battle you can face in getting your life back on track, particularly where your physical health or mental wellbeing has been irreparably harmed.

We also understand how daunting the prospect of bringing a medical or clinical negligence claim can be and the importance of ensuring that you feel adequately supported and sufficiently informed as you embark on what may be a very difficult process for you and your family.

With this in mind, the service we have created is very much geared towards helping you move forward and to making it as easy as possible for you and your loved ones to come to terms with what has happened and what this means for your collective future.

Our overriding objective initially is to ensure that you are well cared for and that you have access to everything you need to aid your recovery or improve your eventual prognosis. Once the wheels for ensuring this have been set in motion, our next priority is to secure you the maximum amount of compensation possible bearing in mind what you have been through and what may ultimately lie ahead.

We will investigate your case thoroughly in order to understand what has happened and seek advice from a range of experts in order to accurately assess the fallout, both from a personal health perspective and financially. We will then explain your options in a clear and easy to understand way.

And to ensure that pursuing a claim with us is affordable, we offer a free initial consultation to determine whether a claim may be possible and thereafter can usually act under a no win, no fee agreement to reduce your exposure to financial risk. Click here for more information

Still need convincing? Then why not have a look at some of the testimonials that we have received from past clients who have benefited from our advice and supportive service.

Remember, we can deal with a wide variety of medical negligence claims and specifically those involving:

• NHS staff;
• Private practice staff;
• GP practice staff;
• Pharmacy staff; and
• Dental practice staff.

What next?

To discuss bringing your own medical negligence claim, call us on 0800 1956412 or email us enquiries@steplegal.co.uk. It costs nothing to find out if a claim may be possible and our advisors are here now waiting to help.

We can assist whether you are based locally in Cheshire or Staffordshire or somewhere further afield in England or Wales, and to make accessing our service as easy as possible we can also offer:

• a free Polish translation service where required;
• free parking at our offices, by prior agreement; and
• home visits where necessary, subject to location.