Making a Cerebral Palsy Claim
A cerebral palsy child is entitled to claim compensation if the condition is caused as a result of medical negligence. Negligence arises when one person owes to another a duty of care and breaches that duty, and reasonably foreseeable harm arises as a result of that breach. The basic judicial definition in English law is "negligence is the omission to do something which a reasonable man, guided upon those considerations which ordinarily regulate the conduct of human affairs, would do, or doing something which a prudent and reasonable man would not do."
Medical negligence is the failure of a health care provider to treat and care for a patient with a reasonable degree of skill and care. If a doctor was careless, lacked proper skills or disregarded established Rules and a person under the doctor's care suffered harm then there may be a finding of medical negligence. Hospitals can be liable to pay compensation to a cerebral palsy childfor the negligence of their employees, including doctors, nurses and technicians.
Negligence is any act or omission which falls short of a standard to be expected of "the reasonable man." It is necessary to show that whatever the Doctor did or did not do fell below the standard of a reasonably competent Doctor in that field of medicine. The Doctor will be able to defend the compensation claim successfully, if it can shown that a responsible body of reputable Doctors in the relevant field would have acted in a similar manner. This means that a judge will hear evidence from experts in the relevant medical speciality and decide whether the actions taken were appropriate.
Often there are several acceptable ways of doing something and this may mean that there is no negligence if an alternative method is chosen. The fact that the person giving an opinion would not have done things in the same way does not automatically mean that there was negligence.
Our solicitors are authorised by the Law Society to use the Legal Aid scheme. They are highly qualified specialists who are members of the Law Society Panel of medical negligence experts with detailed experience in dealing with cerebral palsy child settlements. Less than 1% of solicitors are entitled to apply for legal aid on behalf of their clients for medical negligence claims.
Our service is completely free to you. We are not a claims management company and we will not interfere with the conduct of your claim by your solicitor. The solicitors that we recommend are accredited experts and will advise you on the prospects of success and the value at an early stage of your potential claim.
If your claim is for a cerebral palsy child under the age of 18 then only the child's income if any is taken into account for legal aid and most children will therefore qualify with no financial contribution. Most children who suffer from cerebral palsy will qualify for public funding of their claim even though the child's parents may have substantial income and assets.
If you would like free advice and information from a specialist solicitor then just complete the cerebral palsy child report form and a member of The Law Society panel of medical negligence experts will contact you by telephone to discuss your compensation claim.