Aug/090
Making a claim quickly
If someone owes you money and you cannot settle things in any other way, you may decide to issue a claim through the county court. People also issue claims for other reasons, including:
- Bad workmanship
- Damage to their property
- Road traffic accidents
- Personal injury
- Goods not supplied
- Faulty goods
County courts deal with all these types of claim. You will sometimes hear people talk about the ’small claims court’. What they really mean is the special procedure for handling smaller claims in a county court.
Going to court should always be the last resort. There are now a number of other ways of sorting out complaints, disputes and legal problems without court action, including arbitration, mediation and ombudsmen schemes These are often called alternative dispute resolution (ADR) schemes.
Court rules require you to think about whether alternative dispute resolution is a better way to reach an agreement before going to court.
Some claims can be made online using the recommended Reclaim Now service by clicking here…
There are time restrictions for issuing claims. If you have delayed issuing proceedings for any reason, you may wish to seek legal advice before issuing your claim.
Jun/090
NHS ‘failing to learn lessons’ from medical staff’s errors
OUTMODED systems to deal with medical staff who make mistakes are hampering efforts to improve patient safety in the NHS, a leading doctor has warned.
Dr Robert Hendry, the Medical Protection Society’s (MPS) head of medical services in Scotland, said the long, drawn-out process inflicted on staff when something went wrong put others off coming forward to report errors for fear they would be put through the same experience. He said this meant that lessons could not be learnt from mistakes to stop them happening again.
Jun/090
Bid to fast track medical fault claims
Victims of medical negligence could soon make “quickie” compensation claims without having to prove the responsibility of individuals or organisations under a new scheme to be examined in Scotland.
Experts are to investigate whether NHS patients should be able to claim compensation even if negligence cannot be proved, the Scottish Government said yesterday.
The present “unpleasant and stressful” system of compensation depends on proving legal responsibility and clinical negligence and can lead to lengthy and expensive court cases, which in itself can put people off any attempt to claim redress.
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