Legal Guides

The procedure for making a medical negligence claim in Ireland will vary according to the extent of your injuries and whether you sustained them as a private or public patient.

Therefore, you should speak to your solicitor and provided that they believe you have a claim for medical negligence compensation that is worthwhile to pursue, one of the first next steps is to obtain all relevant medical records and send them to an independent medical expert of the same standing as the doctor/consultant who treated you.

Once your solicitor has reviewed the medical report and is satisfied with the report, they will notify the relevant defendant by sending a “letter of claim” and issue court proceedings on your behalf at a later stage.

Personal injury claims for medical negligence can take many years to be successfully resolved. If you suffer an injury through medical negligence, your main concern will be on recovering from the physical and mental effects of your ordeal, and therefore you may not think about pursuing legal advice for some time. It is vital to note that the process of finding suitable legal representation and obtaining medical records from hospitals and medical practitioners may take several months and typically the specialist who will be required to produce a comprehensive report for the medical negligence claim is based outside of Ireland.

However, most people are not aware, that there is a time limit on medical negligence claims. Two years may seem to be adequate time to begin a claim, but you should understand that a case must be investigated before the letter of claim is sent and evidence of negligence will have to be provided. A case must also be evaluated by a medical expert prior to the letter of the claim being sent, and this “investigative” stage of the claim can take a lengthy time to conclude. It would therefore be unwise to delay pursuing legal advice about recovering compensation.

There are several exceptions to the two-year time limit, which are complex and require careful consideration.

One exception is regarding claims concerning children where the Statutes of Limitation do not start until the child reaches the age of eighteen. Claims for personal injury compensation are frequently initiated before a child reaches the age of consent as it is often valuable to do so.

Other exceptions include time limits for individuals with a disability.

 

At Tracey Solicitors LLP, our dedicated medical negligence solicitors have years of experience in helping people deal with traumatic medical injury claims. We understand the injuries, both physically and emotionally, that you have suffered and have supported and helped many people in similar situations proceed with medical negligence claims in Ireland over the past 30 years.

For more information and a confidential discussion on your medical injury claim, phone 01 649 9900 or email ask@traceysolicitors.ie to tell us about your case, where you can speak with a member of our team straight away.

 

Disclaimer

You should note that no solicitor/client relationship or duty of care or liability of any nature shall exist or be deemed to exist between Tracey Solicitors LLP and you until you have received a written letter of engagement from us in which we confirm our appointment as your Solicitors.