Professional Negligence Case – Solicitor Negligence – Statute of Limitations – Medical Negligence case that Solicitor allowed to become Statute Barred

FACTS

Our Client was the victim of a surgery that went wrong.    A Solicitor was consulted and accepted instructions.  Time elapsed and our Client discovered that no Court Proceedings had been issued and that the two year time limit had passed.  James McSweeney Solicitors were instructed to take over the case.  We called upon the Solicitor and his insurers to admit that the case was out of time. That request was denied.  As a result, we had to run the original Medical Negligence case with the inevitable result that the case was dismissed by a High Court Judge as being out of time.  We then prosecuted a Professional Negligence Action against the Solicitor and eventually he and his Solicitors settled after a long battle.

CONCLUSION

Following two years of unnecessarily Defending our Clients case the Solicitor and his Legal and Professional Insurance team finally settled the case for a six figure sum.  Much of the expense was actually caused by the way the case was defended and if they had accepted responsibility for the  obvious negligence of the Solicitor at an early stage and apologised then it would have cost them a lot less and would have saved our Client a lot of stress and time.

LESSONS

People accept that professionals, including Doctors and Solicitors, make mistakes.  It is part of being human.  What they find unacceptable is the denial of liability for an obvious mistake.  If you make a mistake, make it a rule to admit the mistake and put in every effort to do the right thing.