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Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is medical negligence?

Medical negligence, or clinical negligence as it is perhaps more correctly called is a legal definition. People usually think of medical negligence as a mistake in medical care that causes a person harm but in law it is more nuanced than that. Medical negligence arises only when there has been a particular type of mistake called a ‘breach of duty’ that causes harm. This breach will only arise when, based on the expert medical evidence in a case, the mistake is one that no other doctor of similar general or specialist skill would be guilty of if exercising ordinary care.

That is a very high bar – one that protects the medical profession from the consequences of all but the most serious errors and failures.

Because of this, it is the medical profession and not lawyers who decide the applicable standard in any particular area of medical practice. If you can prove that the care has been so poor that no other doctor would have been guilty of it, then you must clearly identify the harm that has been caused solely by this failing – harm that would not have arisen anyway due to other factors.

Negligence therefore has three ingredients – there is the ‘error’ that we call a breach of duty, then there is the harm that you have suffered and finally (and often the most complex part) is the causal link that proves that the error caused that harm rather than some other cause. These complex issues were last considered by the Supreme Court of Ireland in the case of Morrissey & Anor v. HSE & Others where they represented the successful plaintiffs.

Medical negligence can arise in every aspect of healthcare. We have worked for clients with cases right across the spectrum of medical specialities and settings however over time, we have tried to focus on certain specific areas where we believe our experience and skills are strongest and we can offer something special to our clients. These are the areas specified on this site.

Obvious though it may seem, it should be said here that healthcare professionals have not set out to cause harm and when accidental harm does arise, it must be a sourse of great distress to those healthcare professionals attending on that patient even where they have not been in any way responsible for it. Nobody sets out to cause harm, but when harm occurs and it is serious, leading to long-term or even lifelong consequences, it can become a legal issue whereby redress and the provision of future care is essential to provide for that patient.

Some common examples that we see include:

  • A failure to adequately train or update midwifery staff on the use and interpretation of cardiotocograph (CTG) traces used to monitor fetal wellbeing during labour.
  • A failure to identify the presence or extent of a tear to the perineum in the course of childbirth.
  • An error occurred while performing surgery.
  • Patient was misdiagnosed.
  • An illness or medical need is not noticed by a medical practitioner.
  • The standard of care provided by a medical practitioner is below expectation.
  • Sometimes, medical practitioners injure, cause loss of quality of life, or even lead to death due to their negligence. From avoidable pain to emotional trauma, injuries due to medical negligence can have a severe impact on your well-being. As patients, our trust is put into medical experts to care for us when we need it most. However, occasionally situations occur that leave us at risk of avoidable injury, illness or pain.