Your guide to making a dental negligence claim
How to make a dental negligence claim in England and Wales
There are important time limits involved in bringing a dental negligence claim. For adults, this is three years from the injury itself, or three years from when you become aware of the injury. For a child who suffers a dental injury, the three year time limit starts when they reach 18. It is extremely important therefore if you or your child have suffered dental negligence, that you consult specialist solicitors like us as soon as possible.
Once you make an enquiry with us, a member of our team will take details of your claim. Your case will then be assessed by one of our specialist lawyers. At this stage, we may ask for your dental records so that we can obtain more detailed information about your treatment. This case assessment service is provided free of charge.
Once we have assessed your dental negligence claim and confirmed it is a case we can assist you with, then your funding options will be discussed with you. We offer a very popular ‘no win, no fee’ funding arrangement, which means you will not have to worry about paying our legal fees upfront. By signing the funding agreement you will gain the peace of mind of knowing your case is in safe hands, and you won’t need to concern yourself about the three-year time limit as we will ensure that all necessary steps are taken before the deadline arises.
The next stage of making your dental negligence claim will be to obtain a full set of your dental records, if we do not already have them. These records will then be sent to a dental expert to assess whether your treatment was substandard. If the expert is supportive of your claim, then you may require an examination by the expert to consider what dental treatment you require to put right the errors that have been made. However, please do not worry if you have already received your remedial treatment as we can still make a claim for that work.
Once the expert evidence has been obtained, a detailed letter setting out the basis of your claim, known as a Letter of Claim, is sent to the dentist or their insurance company. The insurer then carries out their own investigations into the treatment you have received and will confirm to us whether they wish to admit fault and negotiate an out of court settlement, or whether they intend defend the claim, in which case we will commence court proceedings.
For more information on how to make a dental negligence claim or for a free case assessment please call our legal helpline on 0333 8880406 or send an email to [email protected]