Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence

Our Clinical Negligence Team

We deal with all areas of medical negligence, from relatively low-value dental negligence matters to the most serious and complex birth injury cases.

Our barristers complement their legal expertise with a strong technical and operational understanding of the clinical field. This enables them to get to the truth of the matter and pursue the optimum legal strategy to get results.

We understand the financial hardship that a clinical injury can cause and we will seek to establish liability as quickly as possible, so that an intermediate award can be made to help with rehabilitation and living expenses.

The team is happy to make home visits in situations where the client is unable to travel and we aim to make the entire legal process as stress-free as is humanly possible.

Here are some examples of our work:-

• Dunks v Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - Scott Matthewson acted for the Defendant in this case which settled at court on the day of the trial. The Claimant had successful IVF treatment but suffered a cord prolapse and gave birth to premature twins who both died 5 days later. The issue in the case was whether the Claimant had reported fluid loss prior to delivery, whether her membranes had, in fact, ruptured at an earlier stage and whether earlier steroid treatment would have saved the twins’ lives. Settled for £280,000 (damages and costs.)
• Lake v Norfolk and Norwich NHS Trust - Thomas Wood for the claimant. C suffered repeated infections following the birth of her first child requiring a hysterectomy.  C asserted that Ds policy on antibiotics was out of date as it had not been updated to comply with the latest NICE Guidelines.  The Guidelines only came out shortly before the injury and so the case revolved around whether the systems in place at the D Trust were adequate to update their policies. Despite most Trusts, including that of the Cs own expert, not having updated their policies at that time. Thomas Wood was able to secure a generous settlement for the C that more than compensated her given the difficulties with liability and causation without the very high risk of losing at trial.
• RV v Surrey & Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust - Richard Gregory instructed on behalf of the estate and the dependent husband and children under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976. The Deceased was admitted for an induced labour and despite exhibiting flu like symptoms at a time of heightened H1N1 swine flu activity, the Trust failed to prescribe anti-viral medication contrary to the clinical guidelines which were in force at the time. It was later established that the Deceased had contracted swine flu and tragically she passed away 4 weeks after giving birth to a healthy girl. Following the exchange of witness statements, expert evidence and joint statements and shortly before an Assessment of Damages Hearing was due to commence, the claim settled at a Joint Settlement Meeting for £400,000.