How Does the Dental Negligence Claims Process Work?
In order to understand more about how you’ll receive compensation if your claim is won, you’ll need to know how the dental negligence claims process works. Every case is different, so there may be situations in which the steps below differ slightly, but the basic premise will stay the same.
This is what you can expect when you contact The Dental Law Partnership to make a dental negligence claim:
- Your first contact with us will usually take the form of a telephone interview. All your details will be taken down by a member of our Customer Service Advisor team who will assess whether your situation is pursuable.
- Your case will then be assessed by our expert team. In some cases, you’ll get an instant response as to whether we’re taking your case forward during the initial call; other times, we may need to run some further checks and will get back to you.
- Once your case has been accepted, your information will be passed across to one of our paralegals. They will collect your dental records together and any other evidence needed to establish a timeline for your case. Our team of dental legal advisers will work through the chronology of your case and assess it further. Asour team is made up of ex-dentists, we have an extensive knowledge of the industry.
- After this assessment, your case will then be assigned to an experienced solicitor if it’s deemed to be strong enough. Your dental negligence solicitor will draft a ‘letter of claim’ – this letter will be sent to the defendant, who then has four months to respond.
- Once the defendant has responded to the letter of claim, your allocated dental negligence solicitor will negotiate with them to settle your claim and work out how much your dental malpractice settlement will be.
- If the defendant doesn’t respond or the negotiations break down, there’s a chance the case may go to court. If this happens, you may be required to attend and give testimony yourself. This is quite rare though, as most cases are settled outside of court.
- Once the case has been resolved, you’ll receive your settlement. At this point, we’ll also take our fees. We work on a no-win, no-fee basis, which means that you won’t pay anything at all if your claim is unsuccessful.
The length of the case and the average settlement for dental malpractice will differ depending on your individual circ*mstances. However, during our time in the businesswe’ve helped thousands of people to gain the justice they deserve– you can find out a little more by browsing through our pastcase studies.
If you have any more questions,get in touch with the Dental Law Partnership for expert legal advice.
How Is a Settlement Calculated?
Every dental malpractice case is different – whilst we can’t state what the average settlement for dental malpractice is,there are a few things we take into account when a claim is made.This might help to give you more of an idea of how the process works.
Some of these factors include:
- The nature of the claim– For example, whether your dental injury was caused by poor technique, misdiagnosis or carelessness.
- The severity and longevity of the injury sustained– How much pain and suffering have been caused by your dentist’s breach of care. This can also include psychological and financial suffering (such as loss of earnings), as well as physical pain.
- Whether or not remedial treatment is needed to rectify the issue– We’ll also take into account the extent and cost of corrective treatment if it’s required.
You may also be able to claim for some expenses. For example, if you have to travel via train to visit an expert as part of your case, your train fare may be reimbursed.
If you’d like to speak to a member of our legal team tofind out more about how our dental claims process works, call a member of our team on 0808 301 8732.
Damage Control
If your legal claim against a negligent dentist is successful, you will be awarded damages. Two types are available:
- General damages: Covering your resulting injuries or a medical condition
- Special damages: Covering the cost of financial losses
General Damages
General damages are the most common. This term refers to compensation that is awarded that can’t be tied to a set monetary cost.
In the dental world, general damages relate to dental treatments that have been incorrectly performed on the patient. There’s a wide range of problems that can be caused by poor dental treatment, which would be classed within this category.
Examples of situations under the general damages umbrella:
- Unnecessary pain and/or suffering
- Loss of amenity– This is a term relating to situations in which the patient’s personal injuries have affected their natural way of life. If you’re unable to do things you could do before the poor treatment took place, then loss of amenity is considered to have occurred
- Losing teeth– This could either be due to poor care by your dentist or wrong tooth extraction
However, ‘general damages’ is a broad category, so this list is by no means comprehensive.
Special Damages
Special damages are slightly different, although they’re no less important. Instead of referring to the physical consequences of poor dental care (such as severe pain),special damages relate to any extra costs you might have incurred as a result of the treatment.
This includes:
- Prescription costs for painkillers or other medicines
- The cost of corrective treatment to fix what went wrong – Can include both restorative and cosmetic work
- Loss of earnings – For example, if you’ve had to have time off work or were unable to do your job due to medical malpractice
- Other expenses related to negligent dental work or the resulting corrective treatment, such as travel expenses
Again – these are just a few examples of situations in which you could claim for special damages. If you’d like to find out whether you have a valid claim for damages,our friendly team will be happy to help!
When Will You Receive Your Compensation?
If you go through a legal case (particularly a lengthy one), you may be wondering when you’ll receive your compensation – providing that the case is settled in your favour, of course.
This will vary based on your situation – particularly, whether a settlement was reached or if you had to go to court to get justice.
However, on average, we aim to distribute compensation to you within a month of the case being settled – although this may differ. One thing you can be sure of is that we’ll do whatever we can to ensure that you receive your compensation in a timely and efficient manner.
Are There Any Extra Costs Associated with a Dental Compensation Claim?
Unless a case is taken on a pro bono basis(which is when work is carried out for free by a legal professional, usually on the basis of public interest)or undertaken by a charity, there will be legal fees to pay.
At the Dental Law Partnership, we don’t carry out pro bono work. All our work is conducted on a purely no-win, no-fee guarantee, so you will only need to pay a fee if your case is successful!
Our no-win, no-fee guarantee has been a massive benefit to our customers throughout the years. We work on a conditional fee basis.. You won’t need any additional funds to pay for your claim, opening the door to everyone who has suffered from improper treatment – regardless of background or budget.
How much will you need to pay in legal fees? This is dependent on the situation itself and the level of compensation you receive. However, before you commit to your claim, we’ll make sure you’re made aware of all the relevant details.
We aim to provide a transparent and helpful service, giving detailed advice wherever we can. All the relevant information will be included within the conditional fee agreement which you will sign before proceeding with your claim. You’ll only receive a bill for our fees after the case has been settled in your favour and your compensation has been received.
If you’d like to speak to an advisor to find out more about our fees,get in touch today on 0808 301 8732.
Client Stories: Previous Settlements for Dental Malpractice
If you want to learn more about the average settlement for dental malpractice,our client stories page is the best place to start.
Whilst every situation is different, you may be able to get a ballpark figure for the amount of dental negligence compensation you could expect if your case is similar. However, even if the dental injury you’ve sustained does appear similar, there is no sure-fire guarantee that other factors wouldn’t impact your compensation settlement so these past successes should be taken as more a general guide than a precise blueprint.
We also hope that the accounts given here will give you a little more hope for your situation, inspiring you to seek the justice that you deserve.
The Dental Law Partnership: A Background
When you start to pursue a legal claim, it’s important to ensure that the legal representation that you use is good enough to get the results you need.
Atthe Dental Law Partnership, our team is made up of a mixture of skilled solicitors and dentists.
This allows our team to conduct their own investigations internally, without having to rely on outside opinions from other dentists in the field. We have all the knowledge needed in-house to be able to assess whether a claim is likely to be successful or not, making the process much quicker and easier in the long run.
The Dental Law Partnership was established in 2000 – since then, we’ve grown steadily to become market leaders in our field. Over the years that we’ve been in business, we’ve represented thousands of dental patients across England and Wales, helping to bring them justice.
Our reviews are very positive, much higher than the national average for the dental law sector, showing that we’re the best at what we do. We’re very proud of our staff and the way they’ve managed to change so many lives for the better over the years.
Trust in the Lexcel Mark
In December 2002, we were awarded the Lexcel Mark by the Law Society.Lexcel is a legal practice quality mark for client care, compliance and practice management.It’s only awarded to prestigious legal firms within the UK that have undergone an independent assessment by the Law Society.
Every time that the Dental Law Partnership has been assessed by the Law Society, we’ve received full compliance across all six parts of the evaluation, which are:
- Management structure
- Services and forward planning
- Financial management
- Office administration
- Managing people
- Case management
As the Lexcel Mark is such a prestigious award, it shows how fantastic our service is, and how committed we are to helping our clients.
Getting justice when you’ve suffered from dental negligence is extremely important – especially if you think you may have to pay for corrective treatment in the future. If your dental compensation claim is successful, the amount received from your dental negligence payout could help to mitigate future dental costs.
If you want to learn more about our awards and accreditations, visit our dedicated page, where we talk about the accomplishments we are proud of.
