How to Prove Medical Negligence – Step-by-Step Guide

When it comes to how to prove medical negligence, you must be able to demonstrate that a medical professional’s negligent care and treatment caused you to suffer avoidable or unnecessary harm. Suffering harm in a medical setting can be a very distressing experience, as we seek help from medical professionals to make things better, not worse. Here at UK Law, our panel of medical negligence solicitors is expertly qualified to handle all medical negligence compensation claims.

Our panel of solicitors have years of experience working on a variety of medical negligence claims, from misdiagnosis, to medication errors and unnecessary surgery. Regardless of what type of medical negligence claim you are making, they could help you with gathering the necessary evidence to support your specific case.

Contact our advisors today to discuss your claim and what evidence you may need.

• Phone us on 020 3870 4868
• Claim online
• Use our live chat

Jump To A Section

1. How To Prove Medical Negligence Claims
2. Is Proving Medical Negligence Difficult?
3. What Medical Evidence Will I Need?
4. Report From An Independent Medical Expert
5. Statements From Witnesses
6. Proving Financial Losses
7. How Can UK Law’s Panel Of Solicitors Help Me?
8. More Information

How To Prove Medical Negligence Claims

When it comes to how to prove medical negligence claims, you must be able to show that a medical professional’s negligent care and treatment caused you to suffer avoidable or unnecessary harm.

Specifically, you will need to prove the following:

1. A duty of care was owed to you by a medical professional, such as a doctor, GP, nurse or pharmacist. All medical professional have a duty of care to provide the correct standard of care to their patients when treating them.
2. They breached this duty. For example, they didn’t consider your symptoms seriously or refer you for necessary tests.
3. This breach caused you to suffer harm deemed avoidable or unnecessary. For example, this could include both physical and psychological harm.

Continue reading to learn what evidence could be used to prove medical negligence claims. You can also contact our advisors to discuss your case.

Is Proving Medical Negligence Difficult?

Proving medical negligence can be difficult if you attempt to do it on your own; however, working with a solicitor makes the claims process significantly easier to navigate. This is because a solicitor is qualified to handle the more complex aspects of a clinical negligence claim. For example, they will know what evidence is needed to prove your specific claim. and can help gather this on your behalf.

To find out more about how our panel of solicitors could assist you, call us today.

What Medical Evidence Will I Need?

The medical evidence you will need is a copy of your medical records, which will clearly articulate a comprehensive history of your health. Notably, this includes:

• Medications prescribed
• Treatments received
• Test results from bloodwork and scans
• Any diagnoses you received
• What types of appointments you had and when, e.g. hospital visits or GP appointments

In relation to a medical negligence claim, your medical records will clearly show the avoidable and unnecessary harm you have suffered.

Contact our advisors to learn more about proving medical negligence claims.

Report From An Independent Medical Expert

Presenting a report from an independent medical expert will significantly strengthen your claim as it shines a spotlight on the harm you have suffered via the voice of a professional.

In other words, this unbiased account provides meticulous detail on the harm the claimant has suffered, its severity, and how it will impact the claimant moving forward, supported by a credible medical professional.

If you want to talk to one of our advisors about how to secure a report from an independent medical expert for your own claim, please call, contact us.

Statements From Witnesses

Statements from witnesses can be used to support your medical negligence claim. Consequently, it’s very important that you collect the contact details of anyone who may have seen you suffer the harm. For example, a loved one who attended your appointment with you or another medical professional present, such as a nurse.

It’s important to note that you can’t write up these statements yourself; only a legal professional can. With that being said, if you decide to work with a solicitor from our panel, they can write robust witness statements on your behalf to strengthen your claim.

To find out more about how a solicitor can help you when it comes to witness statements, please get in touch.

Proving Financial Losses

Proving any financial losses you have suffered due to the medical negligence is another important element of the claiming process. Specifically, financial losses can be compensated under a head of loss called special damages.

To successfully receive special damages as part of your compensation, you will need to be able to prove that you incurred financial losses with documents such as:

• Payslips to prove your loss of earnings.
• Invoices for any rehabilitation or private medical expenses.
• Receipts for any prescriptions.
• Travel tickets for any transportation taken to medical appointments, such as buses or taxis.

If you don’t have evidence of these costs and losses, you may not be able to claim compensation for them as part of your medical negligence claim.

By working with a solicitor on our panel, they can ensure that all of your financial losses are covered in your final settlement, including gathering evidence to prove them. Contact our advisors to learn more.

How Can UK Law’s Panel Of Solicitors Help Me?

UK Law’s panel of solicitors can help you by supporting your medical negligence claim on a  No Win No Fee basis via a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) as well as offering you numerous support services.

A CFA means there are:

• No solicitors’ fees if the medical negligence claim fails
• No solicitors’ fees while the claim is ongoing
• No solicitors’ fees upfront

You will pay a success fee if your claim is successful, and you will pay this directly from your medical negligence compensation, as a percentage that is legally limited, as clearly outlined in the Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013. Essentially, you’ll keep the largest share of the medical negligence compensation.

In addition to being able to help you prove medical negligence by gathering supporting evidence on your behalf, the solicitors on our panel can also

• Organise an independent medical assessment to assess the extent of harm you suffered properly
• Handling all communication with the medical institution where you received your negligent treatment
• Organising any rehabilitation or physiotherapy you may need
• Ensuring both the harm you suffered and your associated financial losses are covered within your compensation settlement
• Making sure your claim is started within the 3-year time limit

Contact Our Team To Get Started

Contact our advisors here at UK Law today to learn more about how to prove medical negligence and how a solicitor from our panel could help you with this.

• Phone us on 020 3870 4868
• Claim online
• Use our live chat

More Information

Some of our other guides:

• Learn about claiming for anaesthetic negligence
• Guidance on claiming for a birth injury that either mother or baby suffered
• Learn more about what could be classed as medical negligence in the UK

External resources:

• Learn about Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) from GOV.UK.
• View your GP health record from the NHS.
• How to raise concerns about a doctor’s conduct from the General Medical Council (GMC).

Thank you for taking the time to read our guide on how to prove medical negligence.