Medical Negligence Solicitors Australia

Legal Helpline: ☎ 1800 529 835

This is a free and confidential service providing information and legal assistance to Australians who have suffered from medical negligence.

Our expert medical negligence solicitors handle such compensation claims on a daily basis and can advise you on what to do when you have been injured by medical treatment.

Where a patient has suffered an injury or disability because of someone else's negligence, the lifelong effects can be devastating. Financial compensation may be sought for loss of income and to pay for any subsequent medical care, rehabilitation and psychological treatment that may be needed.

What is medical negligence?

Doctors owe a duty of care to patients. Patients place considerable trust in their doctors. It is understandable that when something goes wrong, a patient would feel distressed, would want answers, and/or an apology.

When patients speak about having suffered medical negligence, they generally refer to physical or psychological harm caused by a medical professional failing to take reasonable care in the provision of health services. In basic terms, a patient has been injured because a medical professional failed to provide proper treatment or diagnosis that would be reasonably expected of them under the law. As a result of that negligence, a person may be awarded compensation.

Many medical errors and adverse events related to surgical procedures, drugs, and medical care are preventable. However, not all errors amount to negligence as defined by the law. Consequently, not all errors are compensable.

Studies show that most adverse events that take place in hospitals relate to surgical procedures, followed by diagnostic errors, therapeutic errors and adverse drug events. Many errors relate to technical performance, failure to understand information and/or act upon information, failure to request or follow-up on an investigation or consultation with a specialist. Serious errors can result in permanent disability or even death.

If you wish to seek advice as to whether you have a potential lawsuit against a doctor or hospital, get in touch with our legal team today by calling the helpline on our toll free number 1800 529 835 or by completing the contact form.

Types of Medical Negligence Cases

Most medical negligence cases involve failures in the areas of treatment, diagnosis or provision of information or warnings.

Treatment:

• failing to perform surgery with reasonable care and skill;
• failing to provide post-operative care with reasonable care and skill;
• failing to provide the appropriate referral for the condition;
• failing to appropriately treat a condition.

Diagnosis:

• failing to diagnose a condition;
• delay in diagnosis of a condition resulting in a poor outcome;
• misdiagnosis;
• failing to report correctly on test results.

Provision of Information/Advice:

• failing to warn of risks associated with a procedure or treatment;
• failing to advise of alternative treatments and/or procedure;
• failing to disclose to the patient a medical error that has resulted in harm to the patient, where the disclosure would have allowed the patient to undergo treatment to repair the damage.

When should I seek legal advice?

When seeking legal advice you must ask yourself: What do I really want?

Do I want an investigation? An apology?

Do I want my complaint noted so as to prevent similar accidents?

You could instruct a medical negligence lawyer to act for you in making a complaint only. Complaints are best dealt with by bodies such as the Health Care Complaints Commission. But if your need is financial compensation you must see an experienced medical negligence lawyer, as medical boards generally do not have the power to award compensation. A lawyer can negotiate on your behalf with the defendant's lawyers and their insurance company.

There are strict time limits which apply to all compensation claims in Australia. Failure to bring an action within the required time period means that you will lose your right to compensation. If you wish to find out whether you can sue a doctor or sue a hospital, call our legal helpline on 1800 529 835 for free assistance.

Find a medical negligence solicitor

Medical negligence claims are not the easiest to pursue. They are often vigorously defended by doctors and their insurance companies.

Finding a competent and experienced plaintiff solicitor can be very difficult. Some solicitors advertise themselves as experts in medical negligence law, when they in fact have little or no experience in the area, or they do have experience but they have only ever represented defendants (i.e doctors and hospitals) and not plaintiffs (patients).

The law firms whom we refer enquiries to have solicitors with Specialist Accreditation in Personal Injury (Medical Negligence). To be accredited by the Law Society as a specialist, a solicitor must pass rigorous assessments, demonstrate a high standard of technical legal knowledge, core skills and practical capabilities. To maintain their specialist accreditation, they must also demonstrate continued substantial involvement and legal education in their specialty.

By speaking with patients, lawyers, barristers, we have attempted to locate excellent medical negligence lawyers with solid reputations as experts in this area. It is through feedback to this website that we are able to assess the quality of the solicitors we refer to. Moreover we only refer to plaintiff lawyers with a genuine interest in patient's rights. And the best part is that this referral service is free for patients and their families with genuine claims.

Contact our service today for free assistance. Our medical negligence solicitors have offices throughout Australia, in capital cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra as well as various suburbs and regional areas.

Medical Negligence News and Health Law Updates

• In an article by Professor Kelly called "COVID-19 and medical litigation: More than just the obvious" Emergency Medicine Australasia, May 2020, the author states “some treatments recognised as the standard of care have been curtailed. Patients in hospitals are being cohorted based on COVID-19 risk rather than clinical need. In Australia, these changes may leave clinicians open to allegations of negligence.” The author mentions that at the time of writing, there is reportedly at least one case before the Victorian coroner of an aged care facility patient who died from an intracranial haemorrhage following a fall in whom ED transfer was deferred.
• Case law update cosmetic surgery: Turner v Blackstock [2019] NSWDC 102 - Patient awarded $204,670.50 compensation for adverse result from breast augmentation surgery.
• In August 2018, the Grattan Institute of Victoria published a report stating that 1 in 9 hospital patients experience a complication, and that if all Australian hospitals improved their safety measures to be inline with the safest 10 per cent, the Australian health care system could save $1.5 billion annually.
• Since 2003 the Australian government (tax payer's money) has been subsidising cost of medical negligence claims against negligent doctors. The government now wishes to reduce the amount of subsidy for negligent doctors claims because insurance companies are making healthy profits. Read more here: medical indemnity insurance.
• Read about changes to NSW medical negligence laws and compensation payouts against NSW hospitals.
• Find a medical negligence solicitor: Sydney; Melbourne.

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