Orthopaedic Negligence Claims

We expect a certain level of care when we’ve sustained a traumatic injury like a broken bone. Sometimes this standard isn’t met when a doctor, nurse, or consultant misdiagnoses (or fails to diagnose) a broken bone. This could be by failing to refer you for an x-ray or by misreading an x-ray.

Fractures can often be misdiagnosed as sprains or soft tissue injuries. A late diagnosis can lead to:

• A displaced fracture (where the pieces of the bone aren’t aligned properly)
• Additional time off work
• Avascular necrosis
• Longer healing time
• The need for a more complex surgical procedure that could’ve been avoided
• Unnecessary scars.

We’ll make sure that your compensation fully reflects the impact of your injury. This could mean paying for specialist rehabilitation treatment or recovering your lost earnings.

Once you’ve contacted us, we’ll set you up with an initial consultation with an expert lawyer. Here, we’ll learn more about what happened to you that led to orthopaedic medical negligence. We’ll also discuss funding for your claim, including no win no fee agreements.

Next, we’ll gather evidence about your injuries, mainly medical records from your visits to hospital and doctors. We also use independent medical professionals to help assess your injuries and care. They’ll also be able to help us understand how your injuries will affect your life moving forward.

Our experts will take your claim to those we feel are responsible. If they accept they’re to blame, we’ll work to get you interim payments that can help cover any expenses you’ve already had. All interim payments will be taken from your final compensation amount.

If the other party don’t accept fault or disagree with the compensation amount, we might need to go to court. Going to court can make your claim take longer, but we’ll be with you every step of the way. Even when a court date is set, your claim can still be settled out of court.

With most orthopaedic medical negligence claims, you’ve got three years from the date of the negligence to claim. If you didn’t become aware your injuries were caused by negligence until later, you’ve got three years from the date you became aware to make a claim.

The three-year rule doesn’t apply to:

• Children – the three years start when they turn 18
• People who lack mental capacity.

When you contact us, we can tell you more about time limits for making a claim.

Yes, most of our orthopaedic medical negligence claims are made using a no win no fee agreement. This means if your claim is unsuccessful, there’s no financial risk to you.

A no win no fee agreement may involve setting up an insurance policy if you don’t have one already.

This’ll protect you and doesn’t cost anything. You’ll only have to pay anything when your claim is successful, with the other party paying most of our fees.

The amount of compensation awarded in an orthopaedic negligence claim differs from case to case. When you tell us more about what’s happened, we can better guide you on how much you might receive.

When assessing how much compensation you’re entitled to, we’ll consider:

• Specialist rehabilitation treatment and care
• Aids/equipment
• Adaptations to your home
• Ongoing problems, for example limping pain
• Loss of earnings
• Your pain and suffering
• Travel expenses to appointments.

If the claim is on behalf of a child, the full extent of the injuries might not be discovered until they grow up. We’ll make sure the compensation amount for a child reflects their long-term needs.