Medical Negligence Lawyers

To be considered for medical malpractice, a violation of standard of care must have taken place where significant injury was caused by negligence.

There are a number of different settings where medical negligence can occur. Some examples of these include:

• Incompetent treatment, including surgery;
• Incompetent post-operative care after surgery;
• Failure to treat your condition or refer you to a specialist in a timely manner;
• Delay in the diagnosis of your condition;
• Failure to report correctly and/or follow up on test results;
• Failure to warn of risks;
• Incompetent prescription and monitoring of medication.

The 4 D’s of medical negligence are:

• Duty – Health care practitioner duty of care.
• Deviation or Dereliction – Whenever the health care practitioner has not upheld the stand of care agreed upon.
• Direct Cause – Proving the plaintiff has had a direct cause of injury caused by the health care practitioner’s negligence.
• Damages – How much you have lost or suffered due to medical negligence.

Yes. There are strict time limits applicable to motor accident claims depending upon your circumstances.

In general, the incident, whether it was a car accident, truck, push bike or motor bike must be reported to the NSW police force within 28 days from the accident; and The Motor Accident Personal Injury Claim Form (MAPICF) must the completed and lodged with the CTP insurer and driver at fault within 6 months from the date of accident.

The Accident Notification Form (ANF) must be completed and lodged with the CTP insurer at fault and driver at fault within 28 days from the accident.

Proceeding must commence in the appropriate Court within 3 years from the date of accident. By failing to adhere to these strict requirements you could jeopardise the success of your case entirety, as leave may not be granted.

It is difficult to know whether you have a case or not, especially when you hear different things from people. This is where we come in.

Our medical negligence lawyers will investigate your case on a “No Win – No Fee” basis and without any risk taken on your part. We will have specific regard to your instructions and the clinical records. If your case appears to have merit, then we will brief the relevant medical experts and pay for their opinion. If we advise you to commence your case in Court, then again, we will pay the necessary costs in order to prepare your case for that course of action. If you do not win your case in Court, then you pay our firm nothing.

There are several thresholds that you have to meet in order to prove medical negligence or medical malpractice.

• The first threshold is that the health care provider who owed you a duty of care breached their duty of care through their treatment of you. To do this, we must show that the professional’s actions were unreasonable and/or inappropriate.
• Then we must then prove that you have an injury that is worthy of compensation. The level of your injury must meet the thresholds imposed by the law.

The whole process requires extensive collaboration with our medical experts with whom we have developed a very strong relationship over a long period of time.

The first step is for you to have a conference with one of our medical negligence specialists. We will assess your situation carefully and then we will give you our preliminary advice as to whether we can assist you further.

If we can assist you, we will forward you some paperwork which you will need to carefully read and sign. We can discuss this paperwork with you as many times as you like. We will then conduct our investigations and report to you with our further advice. If your case is commenced in Court, then we will push it towards an early settlement.  Most matters settle before they reach a Court hearing.

There are no up-front fees.

At Turner Freeman, we are primarily concerned with helping you rebuild your life in circumstances where you have been injured. For this reason, we operate on a “No Win, No Fee” basis.

We will fund the entire cost of running your case from start to finish. A proportion of your legal fees will be paid by the insurance company in addition to your compensation pay-out. You will not be out of pocket to our firm if you are unsuccessful in achieving compensation in your case at the finalisation of your matter.

Yes.

You have 3 years from the date that the negligence is discoverable to commence your case in Court. However, claims may still be made outside of this time frame in certain circumstances.

In every situation, it is always better to act quickly. You need to call Turner Freeman as soon as you suspect that your treatment has been inadequate. This gives us the advantage of time when trying to achieve the best possible outcome for you.

Every claim is different and depends entirely on your particular situation. We can give you an idea of how much compensation you may be entitled to receive after we confer with you, obtain your records and discuss your matter with our medical experts. The first step would be to prove negligence and if that can be proven, then we will advise you how much a judge is likely to award you and the value of your claim in compensation. We will keep you regularly updated throughout the course of your matter.

It is difficult to say how long a claim may take, however, one of our priorities is to ensure the speedy finalisation of your matter, ultimately through a settlement outside of Court. Most matters move quite quickly from the time that the case is commenced in Court. The Court ensures that parties cannot unnecessarily delay matters and obliges parties to adhere to strict Court timetables.