Medical Negligence - investigation

femur61

I have met with a solicitor about possible medical negligence.

I have to get a UK doctor to look at medical notes.

My solicitor said he will get nurse they use to go through files first to see if there is a case. I will have to pay the nurse. Then they use a UK agency to advise them on a possible doctor in the UK who specialises in that area to look at the medical notes. The agency charge a fee, also which I will have to pay.

Is this a normal practice? I feel the solicitor is being lazy and getting someone else to do the work he should be doing and expecting me to pay.

Addle

Your solicitor is a legal expert, not a medical expert.
I don't see how you could pursue a medical negligence case without the opinion of independent medical professionals, which will come at a cost.

Edgware

femur61 wrote: »

I have met with a solicitor about possible medical negligence.

I have to get a UK doctor to look at medical notes.

My solicitor said he will get nurse they use to go through files first to see if there is a case. I will have to pay the nurse. Then they use a UK agency to advise them on a possible doctor in the UK who specialises in that area to look at the medical notes. The agency charge a fee, also which I will have to pay.

Is this a normal practice? I feel the solicitor is being lazy and getting someone else to do the work he should be doing and expecting me to pay.

Proving medical negligence is one of the most difficult legal actions, allegations of which will be defended rigourously to the bitter end. You can expect to pay a lot of investigation fees, expert witnesses etc.
That is unless you have been consulting with some pisshead down the pub who has given you expert advice

maxsmum

Of course it's reasonable. How can a solicitor guess whether or not a doctor acted negligently? You'd be a fool to pursue a case without solid medical opinion that you have one.

femur61

Sorry, maybe I have not been clear. I know I have to pay the UK doctor, but surely he should be the one looking for it and not expecting me to pay a UK agency to locate one.

Also, why do I have to pay a nurse to go through the notes first ?

maxsmum

femur61 wrote: »

Also, why do I have to pay a nurse to go through the notes first ?

To see if there's a case on the face of it.

nuac

Running a med neg case here is very expensive.

No Irish med will report on nor give evidence about another Irish med's treatment.

Therefore you have to go to the appropriate consultant(s) in Britain.

You need the top person in the particular speciality, ideally still in practice or very recently retired.
( Treatment procedures and standards differ over time )

I saw a list from one of those agencies. It is a practice imported from over the Atlantic. Paper does not refuse ink; at times those with impressive paper qualifications are not good "in the box", or do not stand up well to cross examination.

Your solicitor would do better to talk to other Irish solicitors who have run similar med neg cases here regarding possible expert witnesses.

While the situation has improved, getting full documentation from the HSE and relevant consultants can be like pulling hens' teeth.

Med neg is a tough area. Good luck

Glass fused light

femur61 wrote: »

Sorry, maybe I have not been clear. I know I have to pay the UK doctor, but surely he should be the one looking for it and not expecting me to pay a UK agency to locate one.

Also, why do I have to pay a nurse to go through the notes first ?

Doctors write in medical terms and should follow a protocol / process of treatment. The nurse is the primary carer and has to be able to review a patient chart and check the treatment charted is correct and appropriate before they administer any drugs or formulate a care plan. If the nurse disagrees with what is documented they would contact the doctor and discuss their concerns with the doctor and have the chart changed to reflect any adjustments which had been agreed.
If your claim is based on mistake, wrong meds or inappropriate treatment based on your full medical history (which was charted) the nurse will spot this at a cheaper cost than a consultant. If your argument is on the clinical decisions made by the doctors you will need another 'heavy weight' clinical opinion to argue the clinical decision was not the most appropriate choice.

Cushie Butterfield

I would be expecting the solicitor to at least help with sourcing the medical experts. In fact I’d be looking for one who would.

Glass fused light

Cushie Butterfield wrote: »

I would be expecting the solicitor to at least help with sourcing the medical experts. In fact I’d be looking for one who would.

The range of consultant specialists and quality / professional standing of an individual would be outside the ability of the most solicitors to effectively source. There is little point in picking a expert witness who's CV would get blown out of the water when compared to the original doctor(s).

Addle

At least the solicitor can't charge you for sourcing such research.

Cushie Butterfield

Glass fused light wrote: »

The range of consultant specialists and quality / professional standing of an individual would be outside the ability of the most solicitors to effectively source. There is little point in picking a expert witness who's CV would get blown out of the water when compared to the original doctor(s).

Absolutely, but a decent one should be able to source a reputable expert a hell of a lot more easily than a joe soap, who wouldn’t know where to start.

If they can’t, in the interests of their client they should find out how to.

Not a good start.

Glass fused light

Cushie Butterfield wrote: »

Absolutely, but a decent one should be able to source a reputable expert a hell of a lot more easily than a joe soap, who wouldn’t know where to start.

If they can’t, in the interests of their client they should find out how to.

Not a good start.

femur61 wrote: »

I have met with a solicitor about possible medical negligence.

I have to get a UK doctor to look at medical notes.

My solicitor said he will get nurse they use to go through files first to see if there is a case. I will have to pay the nurse. Then they use a UK agency to advise them on a possible doctor in the UK who specialises in that area to look at the medical notes. The agency charge a fee, also which I will have to pay.

Is this a normal practice? I feel the solicitor is being lazy and getting someone else to do the work he should be doing and expecting me to pay.

The solicitor is using a UK agency to get a referral, for which the OP will have to either pay the agency directly or the solicitor as part of the outlay.

Stanford

There are some Solicitors who specialise in medical negligence claims and know the process, your's doesn't sound like one of them.

Stanford

https://www.lawyer.ie/medical-negligence/

femur61

Cushie Butterfield wrote: »

Absolutely, but a decent one should be able to source a reputable expert a hell of a lot more easily than a joe soap, who wouldn’t know where to start.

If they can’t, in the interests of their client they should find out how to.

Not a good start.

That is exactly how I feel. My child died.

Peregrinus

I am so sorry about your child. My child also died; I know that there are no words for the devastation that you are going through.

femur61 wrote: »

Sorry, maybe I have not been clear. I know I have to pay the UK doctor, but surely he should be the one looking for it and not expecting me to pay a UK agency to locate one.

Well, you can either pay the solicitor to locate an appropriate specialist, or you can pay the agency to locate an appropriate specialist. Nobody is going to provide a specialist-location service for free.

Given that, you should be asking yourself whether you'll get better value from the solicitor or from the agency. The answer is the agency; they'll have experience, background, a network, and some capacity to make judgments about a medical specialist's reputation and credibility. Your solicitor will most likely have none of these things; he's not a medic.

femur61 wrote: »

Also, why do I have to pay a nurse to go through the notes first ?

Because nurses cost less than consultant surgeons. Somebody needs to put together the questions that the specialist is to answer identify the relevant material in the notes, etc, etc. You could simply bundle the whole lot up and send them off to the specialist with some very open-ended question about whether he spots anything that he thinks should have been done differently, but specialists are mostly not interested in doing that kind of tedious work, and even if they agree to do it they will charge vastly more than a nurse.

What you're embarking on here requires highly specialist work, and it requires a lot of expertise. On the one hand, you need to find the right experts for the stuff that requires expertise; on the other hand, you don't want to be paying the experts to do those parts of the work that, in fact, require less expertise. Your solicitor has none of the medical expertise which this case needs; his job (among other things) is to help you source it, and to help you find the right balance between what you assign to the highly-paid experts, and what you assign to less expensive advisers.

I get that this is scarey, and you do really need to have a solicitor who you can trust with this. As others have said, you might consider looking for a firm with a specialsm, or at least a track record, in medical negligence cases. This almost certainly won't be any cheaper, but it may give you confidence that your money is being spend wisely.

McCrack

A solicitor experienced in medical negligence may not necessarily need a nursing expert to read the medical records for preliminary advices.

My advice to the OP is to source a solicitor that specialises in medical negligence.

If you wish PM me for recommendations.

randomrb

Cushie Butterfield wrote: »

I would be expecting the solicitor to at least help with sourcing the medical experts. In fact I’d be looking for one who would.

Why? even the most up to date medical negligence solicitors use firms like this to ensure that they have an up to date expert in the area involved.

You have to understand what a solicitor is proficient at and what he isnt. They are legal professionals not medical, these cases can be difficult at the best of times. Next you'll be asking that the solicitor writes the report himself cause they should know.

Like any industry some work is done by specialist agencies it says nothing about that solicitors competency and actually would say that they are serious about providing the best service

cstaff

I don't know where in the country you are based but the firm that jumped into my mind straight away when medical negligence was mentioned /MOD deletion/

BTW I have absolutely no connection to them - I am based in Dublin and do not know anyone there.

Mod
Sorry, solicitor recommendations not allowed on this forum

missyb01

Hi, i work in a solicitors and we do a may 3 medical negligence cases per year.

We generally take detailed instructions and obtain medical records first. We then send a letter to a Barrister that specialises in medical neg cases. He then provides us with 3 names of consultants in either Northern Ireland or the UK and we then approach them to see if they are willing to prepare a medical report setting out that in their opinion there is a breach of duty and/or care on behalf of either the hospital or the individual doctors involved. Our client pays for the medical report.

There are some consultants who require the medical records, read them and inform us that there is no case to be made. They charge a fee of may £250 for this but it saves money in the long run.

I know there are agencies in the UK that have consultant's on their books so to speak and we don't use them as we prefer doctors that are recommended and that Barristers have experience with.

cstaff

cstaff wrote: »

I don't know where in the country you are based but the firm that jumped into my mind straight away when medical negligence was mentioned /MOD deletion/

BTW I have absolutely no connection to them - I am based in Dublin and do not know anyone there.

Mod
Sorry, solicitor recommendations not allowed on this forum

Sorry about that.

gyppo

OP, very sorry to hear of the loss of your child.

I would urge you to seek out a solicitor firm who specializes in medical negligence cases. There would be about half a dozen or so in this country who's main body of expertise is in dealing with medical cases - deal with one of these.

Any of these firms would have a wide range of UK consultants that they would have used in the past.

Standard practice would be to procure at least one expert report to see first if you have a viable case - if so, your solicitor firm should be willing to take it on if they feel there is a good chance of winning it.
Also, its a requirement that there would be at least one expert report before civil proceedings can be initiated.
It would be usual for the client to pay as they go for all expert reports.

Best of luck, its usually a long road

nuac

McCrack wrote: »

A solicitor experienced in medical negligence may not necessarily need a nursing expert to read the medical records for preliminary advices.

My advice to the OP is to source a solicitor that specialises in medical negligence.

If you wish PM me for recommendations.

Mod
Sorry, no solicitor recommendations allowed thru this forum