Medical Negligence Lawyers

To succeed in a medical negligence claim there are three (3) things you need to prove:

• that the health practitioner/hospital owed you a duty of care;
• that health practitioner/hospital breached that duty of care; and
• as a result, you sustained some sort of personal injury or loss.

Proving those things really comes down to picking the best medical expert to provide an opinion on your matter. This is why it pays to engage lawyers who are highly experienced in medical negligence and know who the best experts are to get involved in your claim.

If you have some concerns about medical treatment you have received in Queensland, you can make a complaint to the Office of the Health Ombudsman (“OHO”).

You can lodge a complaint with the OHO using their online complaint form. We have also prepared a step by step guide which includes the information you should gather before lodging a complaint.

Since 1 July 2014, the OHO has been established to receive and investigate complaints about health services and health service providers, whether those providers are registered or unregistered health practitioners.

Once your complaint is received, the OHO will assess your complaint and determine what further action should take place. In some instances, the OHO will refer your complaint to the Australian Medical Board so that further action can be taken against the relevant medical practitioner.

The awards for compensation vary greatly when a death is involved in a medical negligence incident.   It could result in an award of damages of tens of thousands of dollars.  It could be hundreds of thousands of dollars or it could be much more.

It’s important to appreciate that the law in Queensland does not allow compensation for the loss of a life.  The compensation doesn’t represent the value of that life.  It compensates loved ones for the impacts the death has had on their own health and mental well being.

If you have lost a partner or family member there can be multiple avenues for compensation. For example:

• if you developed a psychological condition (such as anxiety depression, PTSD and so on) because of the death, you could be entitled to a compensation claim for the effect that has had on you personally;
• if you relied upon your partner/family member to earn money for the household, a claim for the ‘loss of dependency’ could be made; or
• if you relied upon your partner/family member to perform household chores and other duties, you could be entitled to make a claim for those lost services.

The more these issues have impacted on you the larger the potential award of medical negligence compensation could be.

Find out more by contacting us and speaking with an expert medical negligence lawyer.

No. You do not need to pay any tax on your medical negligence compensation.  It is tax free.

Causation is a legal term. It is one of the three things needed to prove to have a successful medical negligence claim.

Those three requirements are:

1.  the health professional did something wrong (they breached their duty of care to you).

2.  the error caused your current medical condition (causation).

3.  You suffered a loss because of the injuries (you suffered damage). 

Let’s look at an example of when you would not be able to prove causation:

• John sees his GP to have a suspicious mole on his arm checked.
• The GP tells John that “It’s just a freckle, you don’t need to get it cut out”.
• One month later John sees the GP again. He has another look at the mole and realises that it's skin cancer.
• The GP cuts the skin cancer out and John is ok.

In that example, the GP may have made an error in failing to diagnose that the mole was a cancer in the first place. However, because the cancer was diagnosed soon after, that error has not caused John to suffer any injury. He can show the doctor made a mistake but he cannot prove causation.

Now, let’s look at an example when you would be able to prove causation:

• Kelly sees her GP to have a suspicious mole on her leg checked;
• The GP tells Kelly “It’s just a freckle, you don’t need to get it cut out”.
• 1 year later Kelly notices that the suspicious mole on her leg is now twice as big.
• She returns to her GP who looks at the mole and realises that it’s a skin cancer.
• Kelly has some further tests and finds out that the skin cancer has now spread through her leg. It has been spreading over the last year.  She is rushed into hospital where her leg is amputated,
• Kelly is later advised by another doctor that if the skin cancer had been diagnosed and cut out 1 year ago, she would still have her leg.

In that example, Kelly can prove that the error by the GP has caused her injury (the loss of her leg). She is able to prove causation and succeed in a claim for medical negligence.

The issue of causation is not always a simple one.  Sourcing the right advice and getting the best medical expert evidence is the key to a successful claim.

If you genuinely know there was a medical error and you can maintain a clear focus on the challenges to be confronted in a medical negligence claim and you work hard to find ways to overcome them then very few claims are too difficult to win.  It’s then just a matter of time, resources and perseverance.  An expert medical negligence lawyer can help you with all three.

No medical negligence claim is the same as any other. The reality is some claims will be more difficult than others.  But if you’ve been badly affected by poor health care isn’t it worth fighting for a fair and just outcome?  

Medical negligence litigation is a very specific area of personal injury law. For that reason, it is essential that you engage an experienced medical negligence lawyer who knows how to win these types of claims.

In the majority of cases, there is very little impact (either financially or professionally) on the medical practitioner from a medical negligence compensation claim.  That’s because there is usually a medical insurer involved. 

When you sue a medical practitioner, it is usually the insurance company who will pay your compensation – not the practitioner themselves.

There can be professional consequences, however, if a formal complaint is lodged with the relevant governing body. 

An experienced medical negligence lawyer will be able to help direct you down the most appropriate path.

In theory, yes, but it rarely happens. It is possible  that your treating doctor could be called upon to give evidence (either in the form of a medical report or by turning up to court).

The vast majority of claims resolve informally through negotiations with the medical insurer though without the need to go to court.  So it is highly unlikely your treating doctor would need to get involved.

In Queensland, there are three options which are available to you:

• Making a complaint to the hospital/medical centre about the treatment provider;
• Making a complaint to the Office of the Health Ombudsmen (OHO), who may refer to the matter to the Australian Medical Board; and
• By making a claim for compensation against the treatment provider.

You are entitled to use all three of those options, if you choose to do so.

Yes, it is possible for a medical negligence claim to be made against a hospital. To be eligible and viable for compensation then any claim needs to prove negligence and typically, needs to have resulted in an injury causing financial loss.

Medical negligence claims are negotiated with the liability insurers of the negligent parties which could be organisations such as a hospital or in the case of certain roles such as surgeons and anaesthetists, the insurance is often held at an individual level. Some claims may be against multiple parties. Determining negligence and who the negligent parties for a claim would be are part of the process our medical negligence lawyers take towards the start of the compensation process.

You can sue for compensation if the negligent actions of a nurse or nurses has led to an injury or harm causing financial loss. As with all such cases, negligence needs to be proven. Some health care procedures have a level of risk associated with them even in best case scenarios.

As part of our process, we would investigate who the at-fault parties were and in the case of nurses, the claim would typically be negotiated with the insurer for the organisation for which they worked such as a hospital owner or State based organisation such as Queensland Health.

Yes, it is possible to sue a dentist for negligence if negligence can be proven and significant pain and/or injury has been caused (typically resulting in financial loss).

As with all health care professionals, dentists undergo extensive training and many procedures come with a certain amount of risk which means most bad outcomes are despite the best efforts of the dentist and not due to negligence.

• Surgical errors - from procedures such as root canal or wisdom tooth removal
• Nerve damage - can be caused from excessive pressure on equipment or drilling too far
• Failure to investigate or correctly diagnose dental issues - this may delay appropriate treatment leading to ongoing dental issues and costs.
• Dental implant errors - This can cause a number of issues beyond the cosmetic impact including infections to the gums and bone damage from unsuccessful dental bone grafts.
• Unnecessary treatment - dentists have a moral and professional obligation to only conduct work that actually requires doing.
• Failing to secure informed consent - dentists need to inform patients of the work they plan to do and any associated risks before commencing a procedure.

For smaller issues where some additional dental work or refund is sufficient, you may be able to resolve the issue by complaining directly to the dental provider directly or via a complaint to the Queensland Health Ombudsman for which we have a step by step guide.
Where you feel a dental practitioner is putting people at risk then a Queensland Health Ombudsman complaint should always be made if it happened in Queensland. For other States and territories other than QLD and NSW, complaints should be made to Aphra (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) and in NSW, to the HCCC (Healthcare Complaints Commission).

Yes, you may be able to sue for negligence and be entitled to compensation if you think you have sustained some kind of personal injury (or have lost a loved one) as a result of medical malpractice. 

There are three things you need to prove to succeed in a medical negligence claim:

1. That the health professional did something wrong or breached the duty of care that they owed you as their patient 
2. That an injury or death occurred
3. That the injury or death was caused by the wrongful act taken by the health professional (causation), and wasn’t an outcome that would have happened anyway regardless of anything done by the health professional   

To give yourself the best chance of succeeding in a medical negligence case, you must contact a specialist medical negligence claim lawyer as soon as possible to obtain advice.

Yes. If you have been prescribed an incorrect medication by a doctor that has caused you to suffer some kind of personal injury (or caused the death of a loved one) you can bring a compensation claim.

To succeed in such a claim, you must be able to show that taking the wrong medication led to your current problems (rather than the original illness you were taking the medication for in the first place).

For example, should you be prescribed pain medication, but are given blood pressure medication by mistake you may experience adverse effects from taking the wrong medication. This could include dizziness that causes you to fall over and become injured or worse, cause an accident while driving.

If long-lasting injury to yourself or another result from this error, then you would have a legitimate claim for medical negligence.  

Yes. If the doctor or hospital gets your medical condition wrong you may be able to sue for medical negligence compensation. More prevalent than most of us realise, medical experts estimate as many as 140,000 cases of medical misdiagnosis occur in Australia every year.  Up to 21,000 of those result in serious harm.

You may have experienced a medical misdiagnosis if:

• A health professional did not detect your condition at all when they should have
• You have been told you have the wrong medical condition
• A doctor or hospital has advised that your medical condition is mild or new when it’s serious and/or well-advanced

Medical research shows that common types of medical misdiagnosis include:

• Cancer (this is the leading misdiagnosis case)
• Vascular events (strokes, heart attacks and so on)
• Infections
• Neurological disorders (such as Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease)
• Degenerative illnesses
• Immune system disorders such as lupus or celiac disease
• Viral illnesses 
• Musculoskeletal conditions like fibromyalgia and more. 

To succeed in a medical negligence claim for misdiagnosis you need to show that your health is worse off because of the doctor’s or hospital’s error.  An important first step to take is to speak with an experienced lawyer for medical negligence to help explore your options. 

Tragically, we hear too often about parents losing a child (either before, during or after they are born) as a result of medical negligence. The Australian government’s statistics reveal that the majority (59.5%) of stillbirths occur before the onset of labour, demonstrating the importance of expert care during this period.  

The most common causes of prenatal (before birth) and neonatal (after birth) injuries and deaths include:

• Delay in diagnosing or treating infection
• Delay in diagnosing and treating a complication in the womb
• Preeclampsia and
• Complications during delivery

If your child has been injured or has passed away due to medical negligence, you may be entitled to seek compensation for your injuries, loss and immeasurable mental anguish. 

Yes. If you are unhappy with the outcome of cosmetic surgery or have suffered some sort of complication from cosmetic surgery you could be entitled to seek personal injury compensation.

The most common types of cosmetic surgery and procedures which can give rise to medical negligence claims include:

• Breast augmentation surgery (breast implants)

• Nose surgery (rhinoplasty)

• Tummy tuck (abdominoplasty)

• Laser therapy

• Cosmetic injectables including dermal fillers and Botox 

• Skin rejuvenation procedures such as chemical peels or dermabrasion

• Liposuction

Some of the most common complications that occur with cosmetic surgery include:

• Scarring or skin necrosis
• Complications from the anaesthesia (such as lung infections, stroke, heart attacks and death);
• Extreme or ongoing bruising and swelling
• Numbness or nerve injury
• Organ damage
• Blood clots leading to Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism
• Blurred or loss of vision, overproduction of tears or altered shape of eyes (for eyelid surgery
• Infections
• Psychological injuries related to body image, a traumatic recovery or continued pain and difficulties from the procedure

There has been a growing trend in recent times towards cosmetic tourism (travelling overseas to undergo surgery).  Not only has this given rise to genuine concerns about safety and medical care if things go wrong, but it can also have a significant impact on an individual's legal rights in the event of malpractice.  

Each country has their own legislation and processes regarding medical negligence compensation. While in some destinations these may be similar to Australia, others can be vastly different and afford foreigners no legal rights at all. 

It’s best to speak with an experienced plastic Surgeon before undergoing any cosmetic surgery overseas and seek advice from a specialist medical negligence lawyer regarding your legal rights pertaining to this destination in advance of travel.  

Generally speaking, in Queensland, you have 3 years from the time of any medical negligence to bring a claim to the court or risk losing your legal rights to pursue a claim.

There are exceptions to that general rule. For example:

1. If you weren’t aware of the medical error (or that your current condition was related to it) within the usual 3 year time period, but later become aware of the negligence. In this case you can ask the court to give you an extension of time to make a claim. However, you will need to do that within 1 year of learning of these matters or your rights will again expire.
2. Children have until their 21st birthday to bring a claim (although a formal notice of the claim should still be given within six years of any injury occurring)
3. People with certain types of mental or cognitive incapacities who cannot make their own decisions have an ongoing extension in which to bring a claim