What solicitors think of medical negligence cases?

In the whole litigation process starting from a mere negligent practice of a medical practitioner, the key role is played by medical negligence solicitors who not only have a deep insight of such cases but can give a clear imagery of actual scenario. Though they should be glad on having a rise in malpractice claims as it will make them earn more, but majority of solicitors in this domain seem distraught. They are of the opinion that people need to be educated about their medical health care so that they can be more alert during their treatment and prevent detrimental consequences of medical negligence. They do not put blame on just medical practitioners for such malpractice; instead they think patients’ ignorance about their treatment also help bring on such situations where they unduly suffer in hands of doctors. If people take proactive measures and don’t just blindly trust on doctor’s skills, majority of medical negligence instances can be avoided.

Many states seem in favor of tort reforms on the grounds that number of malpractice claims is rising over time. However, medical negligence solicitors do not believe in the perception of rising lawsuits. According to them, it is just a trick of government bodies to reduce the limits of compensation awards for medical negligence cases, and it is true – compensation limits have been imposed in various states. These reduced compensations are gravely impacting the lives of those who had suffered some major malpractice injury and require lifetime care and maintenance. Apart from limiting medical negligence compensation awards, claimants are also being deprived of ‘no win no fee’ claim options, which solicitors think would keep many deserving people from claiming their compensation and thus many incompetent and negligent physicians would go unchecked.

As to why patients do not pursue their legitimate medical negligence claims, solicitors hold legal system responsible for this. As there are so many technical formalities and legal costs involved, people fear losing their money and after having experienced malpractice injuries they do not want to get into another distressing procedure. Normally, medical negligence litigations take longer to resolve in courts, so people despite having valid claims do not want to pursue their cases. Some patients, even after knowing that they have been negligently treated by their GPs do not dare suing them because they think it will affect their relation with their doctors.

Also revealed by some experienced medical negligence solicitors, many a times valid claims fail to fetch justice in courts because of a biased jury who unjustly give verdict in favor of physicians in order to save either compensations or doctor’s repute.

As a result, victims who are left without justice have to resort to health insurances – receiving medical negligence cost from public rather than the physicians who were responsible for the damages. Apart from that, solicitors say that hiring an inexperienced law practitioner could also be the reason why victims fail to win compensations. There are some so-called medical negligence specialists lawyers who claim to have experience in such cases, where in reality they do not have any – just to save some money claimants get trapped by such less expensive but inexperienced solicitors and ruin their cases.