At the minimum, a successful claim will often reimburse: your past, present and future medical and financial costs that have and will occur as a result of your dental negligence. On top of this, you may be legible to claim a settlement figure for your pain, suffering and loss of life quality. Generally, you can claim compensation for:
- Damages for pain, injuries and suffering (both physical and psychological)
- Out of pocket expenses including loss of income (in some event could include future loss of earnings if you suffered from errors made during cosmetic surgery which affect your employment prospects)
- Medical expenses including a refund of any dues already paid to the liable party and also any expenses incurred or likely to be incurred in rectifying the damage caused to you.
If your surgical procedure resulted in an unexpected outcome, or you were simply not happy with your experience - This may not be grounds for a compensation claim. What must be proven is that your surgeon breached their duty of care, resulting in significant and attributable physical or financial damage. Proving a breach in duty of care, particularly for medical claims, can be difficult.
A breach of your medical practioners duty of care includes, but is not limited to:
- Failure to fully explain all associated risks of the procedure/medication
- Performing a procedure in hazardous conditions.
- Medical misdiagnosis or incorrect drug prescription resulting in significant physical and/or financial loss.
To make a claim, you must be able to demonstrate that:
- In making the error, the medical practitioner or surgeon did not exercise the reasonable skill, care or expertise deemed expected of a medical practitioner of his or her position and at his or her time of operating. Even if this is the case, it must also be shown that;
- The error caused harm or injury to the patient, beyond the underlying condition the patient was being treated for. Note: In some cases, surgical error does not result in any further material harm to a patient. In such cases, compensation would not be payable.
- This is where we come in; We are able to tell you very quickly under which category your experience falls, and whether or not you are able to claim for it or not.
If you believe you have a genuine case for claiming negligent surgery and need help proving it, please get in touch with us for a complimentary, no-obligation consultation.
In most cases, the insurance company of the medical practitioner at fault will cover the compensation settlement. All doctors, nurses and medical practioners are required to have Professional Indemnity Insurance in order to cover negligent cases. Generally the person responsible does not pay out of pocket.
Different aspects of the medical negligence claim process take varying amounts of time.
Generally, you are able to initiate the compensation claim process three years from the date of your procedure/prescription that resulted in your suffering. Because of the difficult burden of proof and attribution of your injuries to your medical treatment, time constraints can be highly variable.
Because of this, we suggest getting in touch with us to for more information about your claim.
