Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence
The purpose of this elective is to provide an introduction to
the large and complex area of Personal Injury and Clinical
Negligence Litigation. The area is expanding rapidly and becoming
very specialised, with the NHS paying out around £633,325,299 in
2007/2008 in settlement of clinical negligence claims and a
potential liability of around £2.4 billion for existing and
expected claims.
The elective builds on knowledge obtained in civil litigation.
The basic litigation procedure for both personal injury and
clinical negligence claims are the same, however the skills
required to pursue the claims differ.
The course will be case-based. The personal injury element will
cover an employer's liability claim from a Claimant perspective and
follow the claim through from initial interview to trial.
The Clinical Negligence element will follow claims through from
both a Claimant and Defendant perspective. Stand alone cases will
also be used to demonstrate individual areas of difficulty. As
currently, fewer than 2% of the cases handled by the NHSLA are
litigated in court, with the remainder being settled out of court
or abandoned by the claimant we will also, where appropriate focus
on participation in mediation or other forms of alternative dispute
resolution (ADR).
Specifically the following areas will be covered.
- Introduction to PI and CN
- Liability
- Funding
- Interviewing, fact gathering and analysis
- NHS Complaints procedure
- Limitation
- Instructing experts
- CPR Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence Protocol
- Case management
- Compensation Recovery Unit
- Damages
- ADR and Negotiation Post-death investigations
The elective would complement a wide variety of students, from
those wishing to go into general practice to those who want to
specialise in an often highly complex area of litigation.
The content of the full-time and part-time course is identical,
but they are structured differently.