5 December 2009 - 0:07What Constitutes Clinical Negligence Cases?
Most people understand that there is a chance for things to go wrong with any medical treatment. Sometimes these problems arise through no one. ’s fault. Other times, the problems can be the direct result of the clinician making a mistake. Clinical negligence is what this is known as.
The law takes two things into consideration when deciding if clinical negligence has occurred.
Substantiation must be proven to show that the clinician in question did not uphold adequate standards. These standards are decided by knowing that another professional in the discipline, who is competent, would have avoided such a mistake.
Many types of medical mistakes can be made. Was there something that should have been done and was not? Maybe they did something that they should not have done. Regardless, the standard remains the same.
The conclusions are made according to when the incident occurred. The clinician’s actions are not considered negligent if the treatment was not known to be unsafe when it was administered.
It is important to note that the law realizes that there are going to be differing opinions in the medical field. With this in mind, a negligent action is one that no reasonable clinician would make.
For causation, the legal test of but for is used. There must be evidence to support that the damage done was a direct result of treatment of lack thereof.
In order for to have a claim of negligence, those two criteria must be not. It is not enough to say that the treatment was unsatisfactory.
If a clinical negligence case is made against an individual who is part of a hospital system, or clinical group, then the claim will be made against whoever the employer is and not the individual. The employer cannot recover costs from the clinician. In other words, the one responsible will not be the one who has to pay. If the clinician owns their own practice, then they may be liable.
A time period for filing a negligence claim is three years. The three year period can start from the time that negligence is suspected to have caused the injury. There are special rules for cases involving children.
Two stages for the claim exist. Stage one, or the investigative stage, is the time during which all information pertaining to the case is gathered and examined.
If enough proof exists for the claim to proceed, then the next stage begins. This stage is where the accused is served with formal notification of the claim against them.
Keep in mind that it takes time to get all the information together. This part can take up to 12 months. For the most part, these cases can last six years or more.
Matthew Kerridge is an expert in accident claims. If you want further information about clinical negligence or are looking for a trusted law service please visit http://personalinjury.ffw.com
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