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This is not for me but some friends. The story in short is that a young single mother died and at the inquest the hospitals were heavily criticized which would mean a medical negligence claim is probable to succeed
Being a young mother leaving behind an dependent child with no father then obviously awards would be huge and as such the hospitals are likely to fight it hard. The family have little appetite for the courtroom battle
What we are wondering is what would be the chances of a swift out of court settlement if they asked for a much smaller sum than would be awarded by a court. Say £50 000 instead of the million plus a court would be likely to award them if they won. They do not want to take excessive money out of the public purse but they do want something for the child to secure its future and as above after a tough two years of inquests and police inquiries they have no appetite for a prolonged court battle
Is this something that might fly? Obviously they need proper legal advice and have time to make decisions but I wondered if anyone here had any clues
Ta
Say £50 000 instead of the million plus a court would be likely to award them if they won. They do not want to take excessive money out of the public purse but they do want something for the child to secure its future
Remember they will be dealing with the Scottish equivalent of NHS Resolution, and its insurers, rather than the trust itself, so while it will be reflected in insurance premium to some extent, they would not be taking a large sum directly out of patient services.
I don't know who has bandied around the million figure (not sure it would be that much), but I'm afraid 50K does not secure a child's future. If the inquest and police enquiries have already gone a long way to establishing liability, then a lot of the hard graft has been done. Chances are that negotiating for a smaller settlement would be equally demanding once you get into the bureaucracy of medical claims against the NHS.
I understand that it is a gruelling process, but they do need to get some proper advice from a specialist medicolegal solicitor, and get a claim in if there is any danger of passing the cut-off date for action.
Luckily they have friends like you who can support them through it.
English not Scottish. Ta for the info tho. they have 2.5 years to make the claim I think
Three years from the incident in England IIRC, but that may not apply because the claimant would be under 18. While it's understandable that they might feel exhausted and beaten down by the process so far, they can have a pause, get some proper advice, and hopefully find a professional who can relieve some of the burden.
at the inquest the hospitals were heavily criticized
There's a difference between being criticised and being at fault.
Personally this sounds like a crowdfunding type thing might be more applicable.
There's a huge difference between inquests raising findings that are critical, and proving gross negligence, first step would be to speak to someone like CAB, who should be able to point them to a solicitor who will be able to discuss the situation in more detail and offer potential outcomes.
They have been told by a lawyer they have a good chance of a claim I think.
I was just wondering if my idea was nonsense - sounds like it would not reduce the hassle enough to be worthwhile
There’s a huge difference between inquests raising findings that are critical, and proving gross negligence,
An incident of gross negligence (recklessness/malice/wanton endangerment) would be approaching the threshold of criminal action. Ordinary medical negligence is a lower hurdle, but still involves demonstrating a breach of the duty of care the hospital owes to its patient, for example via a mistake or carelessness.
Obviously we don't know the inquest findings, but hopefully information made available for the coroner would also be directly available for a specialist legal team, which may help.
They really need a proper consultation with a solicitor that specialises in this. Initial consultations usually free.
When my old man sued it took about three years in total to get paid out, but a lot was dealing with low ball offers, dismissing offers, etc.
Was settled out of court in the end though I think.
It wouldn't surprise me if £50k would be paid fairly happily given the cost of legal advice and that the NHS trust will probably have a fairly sizeable excess on their insurance policies.
I would think about whether £50k is a reasonable amount to do much for the child in the future. With the size of the budgets involved in the NHS I don't think your friends need to be worrying too much about taking money from the public purse.
Ta folks - the numbers where just off the top of my head. I'll be speaking to them later and wondered if this idea might provide a route for them but it seems that its probably not
Ta for the help
Having worked with Indemnity providers (MDDUS and MPS), and the NHS Resolution team I'd not be at all convinced that a low ball offer from a claimant would likely to be any more successful than just going through the process of claiming (or engaging specialised solicitors to do that for you). Most claims would be expected not to get to court- there'd certainly be some questions from the judge to the solicitors about it, as these sorts of cases have both an agreed procedure and guidelines for awards set out precisely so that they don't end up in court and all the aggro for claimants that entails , and as some-one else has pointed out £50K isn't going to go a long way anyway.
Ta again
Need to talk to a no win no fee medical claims specialist solicitor - literal ambulance chasers. They still advertise on daytime TV I think.
A gross undersettlement to save hassle and stress, or to save the public purse, would probably not work where the claimant is a child.
Their claim will be run by an adult litigation friend. The LF can make some decisions about the case, but any settlement for the child would have to be approved by the court.
The court would want to see independent legal advice (i.e. not just from their own solicitor) as to the proper value of the claim.
If the LF wants to settle for much less than that, the court simply wouldn't allow it, would not consider it to be in the child's best interests.
Need to talk to a no win no fee medical claims specialist solicitor – literal ambulance chasers. They still advertise on daytime TV I think.
I wouldn't - I'd speak to a litigation solicitor with experience in medical negligence. If they think you have a bomb proof case they will probably waive thier fees anyway, and add thier costs into the claim.
A few others points.
£50k would not be "paid out quite happily" unless NHSR thought they had a real risk on liability.
Very few cases indeed go to trial, probably fewer than 1%. It is not something a claimant should be particularly concerned about.
Criticism by a Coroner does not necessarily mean a clinical negligence claim will succeed. The Coroner might well have criticised the care provided, but proving that the deceased would probably have survived with proper care is a very common stumbling block.
However, a thorough Inquest can be a shortcut through much of the investigations usually required, and it provides much earlier disclosure of things like the clinicians' witness statements than would ordinarily be the case.
If the Coroner's comments are sufficiently scathing, and the causation case sufficiently clear, then there is sometimes an early admission, and interim payment of damages.
They have been told by a lawyer they have a good chance of a claim I think.
Then go with the lawyer or and "ambulance chaser".
Think of how the child is going to feel about it in the years to come. I think most would be pretty pissed off if somebody hadn't fought for everything they could on their behalf. Do it for the kid even if it means hassle the adults have little apetite for. Lawyers are there do the dirty work.
They are just not sure about the level of stress involved and if they can cope. . I am not going to give more details but their last two years makes my last year look like a nice day out.
Ta very much for your help tho folks. My idea of trying to make an easier path to get some compensation is clearly a non starter which is what I wanted to know