At the outset it will be necessary to obtain your medical records from your GP and any hospitals you have attended.

We can request records on your behalf if you wish, alternatively you can simply write to the hospital and to your GP requesting copies yourself and then forward same to us when you receive them.

The Statute of Limitations is a piece of legislation which prescribes time limits in which certain legal actions must be commenced. In relation to claims of medical negligence, the general rule is that proceedings must be issued within two years of the date of the negligent act. In order to protect your rights and leave open the possibility of your pursuing any claim it is imperative that proceedings are issued in advance of your statute date.

In order to succeed in a claim of medical or clinical negligence in this jurisdiction, three key elements must be proven to the Court on the balance of probabilities. You must prove to the court that the negligence of another caused you an injury. In simple terms this means that substandard care provided to you caused you an injury.

In this jurisdiction, prior to serving medical negligence proceedings it is required by the Courts that you have in your possession a report from an appropriate medical expert, which criticises the care you received and links those failings to your injuries. Whilst I we have not yet had the benefit of reviewing your medical records, we will advise you further on the correct choice of expert when this task has been completed. We generally instruct experts in the UK in order to ensure their independence and impartiality from the HSE, Irish hospitals and Irish doctors.

This office does not charge for investigating claims of medical negligence, that is, if you wish you can provide a copy of your medical records and we will review same as best we can (we are Solicitors as opposed to medics) and we will advise you on whether or not we believe the matter warrants further investigation without any fee.

However, if we advise that we believe the matter warrants further investigation and you decide to proceed, it will as outlined above be necessary to instruct a UK expert to provide a report. It will be necessary for you to discharge the cost of that report. Prior to instructing any expert, we will obtain from them an estimate of their fees and generally speaking a report of this nature costs in the region of GBP£2000. The risk for you is that you will have to pay the expert before they will release their report to us and there is the risk that you will pay out the sum of money and the report will find that whilst you were extremely unfortunate and have suffered greatly, there was nothing the clinicians could or should have done differently to avoid your injury. If you receive a report of that nature it will not be possible for you to serve legal proceedings and you would suffer the loss of that money. Alternatively, if the report finds that the care afforded to you was substandard, then we would seek to recover your outlay in respect of the report fee from the Defendant in due course.

As outlined above we do not charge a fee for investigating a claim of medical negligence and if you receive a report that is unsupportive, the only outlay which you will bear will be the cost of that report. However, should you receive a supportive report and wish to proceed, we will then furnish to you a Section 150 Letter as is required by the Legal Services Regulatory Act. This will set out in greater detail our proposed fees, however at this time, I can advise that broadly speaking we operate on a no-win no-fee basis and that we will seek, if your case is successful to recover all of our costs and outlays from the Defendant.

This to a great extent will depend on whether the Doctors insurance company or in the case of the HSE, the State Claims Agency elect to dispute liability but in general claims from the very beginning of the process to the settlement and payment of compensation the time period is 24 to 36 months.

In most cases, damages are made up of two parts:

I. General Damages

II. Special Damages

Special Damages are out of pocket expenses or quantifiable financial losses suffered by you as a result of your injuries and therefore the sum recoverable for special damages will depend wholly on the circumstances of your specific case.

General Damages, on the other hand, is compensation for pain and suffering. Under current Irish law this is capped at €550,000 (previously €500,000). This upper limit is reserved for those Plaintiffs who have suffered the most catastrophic and life altering injuries such as quadriplegia. All other injuries attract General Damages on a declining scale from this upper limit.

It is impossible to say with certainty that any particular case will resolve without the need for a Trial. We prepare all cases on the basis that a full hearing will be necessary – then if there is the opportunity for mediation or settlement, we will be well prepared.

When the court must today make a lump sum award to compensate the plaintiff for a series of future annual expenses which will arise in the future and continue for years into the future, it must make an allowance for the possible interest or investment income that could be earned by the plaintiff on the lump sum award before the future expense is incurred or paid out. The allowance made by the Court for the possible investment income or interest that can be earned on the lump sum award is called the Discount Rate or real rate of return (RRR). The higher the discount rate or RRR assumed by the courts that should be applied to the lump sum, the lower the final award will be.