A to Z of Clinical Negligence - In 2 Days

Introduction

A comprehensive and practical 2 day course, aimed at those who are new or relatively new to clinical negligence work, or who wish to move into this area.

The course will focus on the core areas and key essentials of the law and practice of clinical negligence work. The course is tutor led and consists of case studies, with discussion and question and answer sessions. The emphasis will be on acquiring practical skills with a good theoretical base. Participants should come away being able to commence their own caseload.

What You Will Learn

This course will cover the following:

The Law & the Principles

• What is Clinical Negligence
• What is an injury - recovered injuries, ongoing injuries, psychiatric injury and fatal claims
• The difference between a complaint and a claim
• The myths of clinical negligence
• Limitation
• The basics
• Primary limitation
• Date of knowledge
• Children
• Fatal cases
• Capacity
• S.33 Limitation Act
• The Basis for Liability
• Duty of care and duty to the patient
• Duty on third parties to prevent harm to patients
• Direct and vicarious liability
• Non delegable duties
• Liability and Causation
• Bolam and Bolitho
• Liability - breach of duty and causation
• Causation with no breach and vice versa
• The reasonably competent professional and gold standard
• Material contribution
• Causation - Case law and the changing landscape of causation
• Complex causation and how it applies to your case
• The Standard of Care
• Errors of judgement
• Reasonable and foreseeable risk
• Failure to attend or treat or to take a full medical history
• Wrong diagnosis and failure to revise incorrect original diagnosis
• Failure to spot serious problems or arrange diagnostic tests
• Failure to refer on
• Delay in diagnosis
• Experimental or novel procedures
• Novel circumstances and the law - Darnley
• Consent
• Form and validity of consent
• Emergencies
• Chester v Afshar, Montgomery v Lanarkshire, Thefaut v Johnston and Duce v Worcestershire
• The tort of Trespass to the Person and its application in a clinical context
• Consent as a defence
• Fatal Cases
• The inquest
• Secondary victims
• Case-law
• Human Rights Act
• Costs

Bringing a Claim

• Internal Investigations
• PALS
• Complaints
• SUI’s
• Datix
• Funding
• ATE/BTE/private funding
• The CFA
• Success fees
• Children
• Fatal cases
• Litigation Friends, Deputies and other professionals who bring claims
• Medical Records
• GDPR and medical records
• Who holds medical records
• Missing records and inferences
• Internal documents and the duty to disclose
• Sorting medical records and chronologies
• The Witness Statement
• Who provides a witness statement
• Quantum and/or liability
• Content
• Form
• Multiple witnesses
• The opponents witness as your witness - Manzi
• The Pre Action Protocol
• Letter of Notification
• Disclosure
• Letter of Claim
• Letter of Response
• Evidence
• Which evidence
• Liability and causation
• Condition and prognosis
• Life expectancy
• Specialist reports
• Valuing Claims
• When you can value a claim
• Schedules of Loss
• Quantum
• Heads of Loss
• Specialist heads - loss of earnings, pension loss, pure economic loss, dependency
• Discount rate
• Settlement
• Offers - Part 36 and Calderbank
• ADR/JSM/RTM
• Letters of apology and next steps
• Issuing a Claim
• How to issue a claim
• What you need to serve
• The litigation matrix - from service to Judgment
• Costs
• Interim payments
• Costs bill
• Provisional Assessment
• Detailed Assessment