For You
If you or a member of your family has been harmed by medical or clinical negligence, our clinical negligence team acts for claimants across the UK, with a free initial consultation and no win, no fee funding available.
When medical care falls below the standard you were entitled to expect, the consequences can be lasting: for your independence, your ability to work and your family.
A medical negligence claim is how those consequences are recognised and paid for. It is also, for many of the clients we act for, how they get a clear account of what went wrong.
We act for claimants throughout the UK in claims against NHS trusts, GPs, dentists and private healthcare providers. Our solicitors are on the panel of Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA). Most claims are funded on a no win, no fee basis, with a free first conversation and no obligation to proceed. To discuss your situation with an experienced medical negligence solicitor, call 01689 887800 or submit your details and we will get back to you.
Medical negligence, also called clinical negligence and sometimes medical malpractice, is care from a healthcare professional that falls below an acceptable professional standard and causes avoidable harm. It is not simply treatment that had a poor outcome. In law, a poor outcome is not by itself evidence that anyone was at fault. Where harm was caused by an accident rather than by treatment, it is a personal injury claim instead.
A claim requires two things to be established, and both are necessary.
Breach of duty. The care must have fallen below the standard of a responsible body of professional opinion, the test set in Bolam. A clinician is not negligent merely because another expert would have acted differently. But where the opinion relied on cannot be logically supported, the court is not bound to accept it, as the House of Lords held in Bolitho. Consent is different. Since the Supreme Court’s decision in Montgomery in 2015, a patient must be told of any material risk in a recommended treatment, and of reasonable alternatives. What counts as material is judged by what a reasonable person in that patient’s position would attach significance to, not by professional custom. What counts as a reasonable alternative is itself a matter of professional judgement.
Causation. The breach must have caused the harm. It is often the harder of the two questions, particularly in delayed diagnosis cases, where the issue is not whether there was a delay but what difference earlier treatment would have made.
Establishing both requires independent expert evidence from a clinician in the same field. That is why nobody can tell you at a first conversation whether you have a claim. The records have to be reviewed first.
You do not need to know. Some things are enough on their own to make an investigation worthwhile: an outcome nobody warned you about, a diagnosis that came late, a complication that was not managed, a procedure carried out on the wrong site or in the wrong way, or an explanation that does not match the records.
Our first step is to obtain your medical records and review them. If we think there is a case worth investigating, we instruct an independent expert. If the evidence does not support a claim, we will tell you so, and we would rather do that early than take on a case that cannot succeed.
There is a separate route worth knowing about, and the two can run in parallel. You can complain to the trust, practice or provider, normally within 12 months of the incident or of becoming aware of it. If you remain dissatisfied, you can take the complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, generally within 12 months of becoming aware of the problem. The Ombudsman is independent of the NHS but cannot award compensation, and generally cannot investigate a matter where court action is available. For many families, a complaint answers “what happened” and a claim answers “who pays for the consequences”.
Errors in surgery, including wrong-site procedures, retained objects, anaesthetic errors and complications that were not managed.
Cancer, sepsis, fractures, cardiac events and other conditions where a delay in diagnosis changed the outcome.
Failure to examine, to investigate, to refer or to follow up, and prescribing and medication errors in primary care.
Injury to mother or baby during pregnancy, labour and delivery, and negligence in gynaecological care.
Claims arising from injury around the time of birth, where long-term care and support are in issue. Where a brain injury was caused by an accident, our personal injury team deals with it.
Claims where a stillbirth may have been avoidable, handled with the sensitivity these cases require.
Loss or deterioration of vision following eye surgery, and delayed diagnosis or delayed follow-up of eye conditions.
Negligent dental treatment, missed oral disease, and failures in orthodontic and implant work.
Claims for bereaved families where negligence contributed to a death, including representation at an inquest.
Compensation in a clinical negligence claim is made up of two parts, and the second is usually the larger.
General damages compensate for the injury itself, meaning the pain, the suffering and the loss of amenity, assessed on independent medical evidence about the harm the negligence caused, as distinct from the underlying condition you already had. That distinction does much of the work in these claims.
Special damages compensate the financial consequences, known as the heads of loss. They cover past and future loss of earnings, the cost of care and case management, treatment and rehabilitation not available on the NHS, aids and equipment, adaptations to your home, travel, and where capacity is affected the cost of managing the award.
Rather than quote a figure, we will tell you at the outset which of those are likely to apply to you and make sure each is properly evidenced. In a claim involving long-term care, the care and accommodation evidence determines the outcome far more than any published bracket does.
Where capacity is affected, a deputy appointed by the Court of Protection manages the award. Where a lump sum could affect entitlement to means-tested benefits, a personal injury trust can protect it.
Free initial consultation. We discuss what happened, what you have been told, and whether the case is worth investigating. No obligation, no charge.
Records and investigation. We obtain your full medical records and review them, alongside the trust’s or provider’s own incident investigation where one exists.
Expert evidence. We instruct independent experts on breach of duty, on causation and on the extent of the injury. In a substantial claim this will be several experts across different disciplines.
Letter of claim and response. The claim is set out formally in accordance with the pre-action protocol, the procedure the courts expect parties to follow before proceedings are issued, and the defendant has a defined period to investigate and respond.
Negotiation and settlement. Most claims settle without formal legal proceedings: NHS Resolution reported a record 84% of clinical negligence claims resolved without the need for them in 2025/26.
Court proceedings, if needed. Where a fair resolution cannot be reached, we issue and take the case forward. Issuing proceedings does not mean the case will be tried; most issued claims are still settled.
Under the Limitation Act 1980, the general limit is three years, running from the date of the negligence or, if later, the date you first knew you had a significant injury and that it was attributable to the treatment you received. In clinical negligence, the second date is often the operative one, because patients frequently do not know something went wrong until much later.
The exceptions matter:
For a child, the three years does not begin until their eighteenth birthday, so a claim can be brought up to their twenty-first. A parent can bring it earlier on the child’s behalf.
Where someone lacks the mental capacity to conduct proceedings, time does not run while that continues. There may be no effective deadline at all.
Where a patient has died, a claim is generally brought within three years of the death, or of the personal representative’s date of knowledge if later.
The court has a discretion to allow a claim outside the limit, but it is exercised sparingly. Time limits here are complicated and the cost of getting them wrong is absolute. If you may be close to a deadline, contact us straight away.
Most of our clinical negligence claims are funded by a conditional fee agreement, known as no win, no fee. There is nothing to pay upfront and, if the claim does not succeed, you do not pay our fees.
If it succeeds, most of our costs are recovered from the defendant. A success fee is also payable and comes out of your compensation. By law that success fee cannot exceed 25% of your damages for pain, suffering and loss of amenity and your past financial losses, after any benefits repayable to the Compensation Recovery Unit have been taken off. That cap applies however the claim ends, and the fee is never taken from compensation for future losses such as future care. You would also be responsible for disbursements such as expert and court fees, and for any costs order made against you, which is what after the event insurance is for. We will set out all of it in writing before you sign anything.
Three alternatives are worth checking:
Legal expenses insurance, often an add-on to home or motor insurance. If you have it, using it can mean no deduction from your damages. Check your policy schedule, or send it to us and we will check.
After the event insurance, which can cover the cost of expert reports and certain other disbursements. Clinical negligence is one of the few areas where the premium relating to expert reports can be recoverable.
Our clinical negligence team is led by Alex Wormald, a partner who originally qualified as a barrister before cross-qualifying as a solicitor. He is an AvMA accredited panel member, is ranked by Chambers and Partners, and holds Law Society accreditation in personal injury and clinical negligence.
Our solicitors are on the panel of Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA), the medical negligence charity. The team is recognised in both Chambers and Partners and the Legal 500. The firm is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and has practised from Orpington in Kent since 1951.
One solicitor handles your case throughout, and you can reach that person directly. Our case studies show the kinds of claim we take on.
If you were harmed by treatment that fell below the proper standard, you may be. The time limit is usually three years, but it does not always run from the treatment. The only way to know is for the records to be reviewed and an independent expert instructed. The first conversation costs nothing.
Yes. NHS claims are handled by NHS Resolution rather than by the individual clinician or hospital, and bringing a claim does not affect your right to continue receiving NHS treatment.
A claim is a civil action for compensation, not a disciplinary process. Regulators such as the GMC and the GDC deal separately with fitness to practise and cannot award compensation. The GDC states that it “cannot resolve complaints or help with refunds”, because its investigations are about fitness to practise. The two are distinct routes.
Records and independent expert evidence take time to obtain, so these claims usually take longer than a personal injury claim. Complex claims, and any claim involving a child or long-term care, take longer again, and should not be settled before the long-term evidence is complete. We will give you a realistic timetable for your own case once we have the records.
Usually not. NHS Resolution reported that 84% of clinical negligence claims were resolved without formal legal proceedings in 2025/26. Of the claims that are issued, most still settle before trial.
No, and a complaint is not a prerequisite. It can be useful, because the response often produces documents and admissions that assist. But the 12-month complaints deadline and the three-year claim deadline are separate and should not be confused.
Yes. A parent can claim for a child, a litigation friend can act for an adult who lacks capacity to conduct proceedings, and a personal representative can bring a claim on behalf of someone who has died.
The same principles apply. The claim is brought against the practitioner or the provider and their insurer or indemnifier rather than against NHS Resolution.
More questions about how a claim is pursued, timescales and funding are answered on our personal injury and clinical negligence FAQs page.
Tell us what happened and we will tell you, without obligation, whether we think it is worth investigating.
Call 01689 887800 or submit your details, and we will come back to you. The first conversation is free and confidential.
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