While we strive to settle medical negligence claims within months, some more complicated cases can take a few years to settle. However, we can help to try and get you the medical care, treatment and support you may need, as well as interim payments to help pay for travel costs to and from appointments and other expenses while your claim is ongoing.
How Long Does It Take For A Claim To Go Through?
We’ll work as quickly as we can while making sure we fully investigate your case. Once we’ve got medical records, we’ll instruct medical experts to give their opinion about what happened to you.
Once we have sent formal notification of your claim to the person or body responsible for negligence, they will have 14 days to acknowledge your claim, and four months to respond in detail.
If court proceedings begin, a trial date is usually set for between 12-18 months following the start of court proceedings. However, most cases will settle before the appointed trial date.
Will My Claim Be Settled In Court?
If the person or body responsible for negligence denies any wrongdoing, we’ll consider whether it’s appropriate to start formal court proceedings.
Once court proceedings have started, documents including medical reports and witness statements will be submitted to court. Your claim is highly likely to settle at some point during these later stages, and the vast majority of our cases successfully conclude before reaching trial.
Medical Negligence Claims – Free Initial Advice
More often than not, other factors such as the severity of injury and where it took place can affect the time that it’ll take for a claim to settle, so it’s important to seek legal advice as soon as possible.
We will be happy to discuss this issue with you in more detail in a free initial consultation. Call today for free on 0800 121 6567 or contact us online and we’ll get back to you.
The above information relates to the law in England and Wales.
All Scottish cases will be handled by the Scottish law firm with which we are associated, Irwin Mitchell Scotland LLP. The law relating to funding is different in Scotland and you will receive separate advice about what that means as well as a separate funding agreement.
