For anyone considering a claim for medical negligence, it’s important to understand the time limits involved.
It’s not pleasant to think about being injured by medical professionals who are there to help or heal you, but it does happen from time to time. In the last 25 years, medical negligence claims have certainly become more common.
In general, the limit for pursuing a claim for damages in Scotland is three years from the date of the incident or harm. But this may not be as straightforward to establish as you think.
This is because in many cases, the date of harm (the negligence itself) is not the same as the date of knowledge of the harm. The latter is the date you made (or should reasonably have made, or when someone told you about) the connection between your injury, pain and suffering and the possible negligence.
There are many reasons why your date of knowledge may be different to the date of the harm. For instance, symptoms, pain and suffering may not begin for some time, or a diagnosis may be delayed.
So, if you underwent negligent surgery on 21 February 2018 but didn’t realise until 10 March 2019, it could be argued that your three-year time limit to take the case to court expires on 10 March 2022 rather than 21 February 2021.
How is the date of knowledge worked out?
If a medical professional tells you about the harm, that can generally be confirmed as the date of knowledge. But if you personally make the connection between your injury and possible negligence, the date of knowledge may be trickier to show. Several factors may be taken into account, including:
- your mental capacity
- the significance of the alleged negligence
- who carried out the procedure
- when you ought to have made the connection.
You won’t be surprised to learn that all of these factors can prove contentious or hard to establish. There are other exceptions to the three year time limit too. These include cases:
- involving a child
- where the injured person lacks mental capacity to bring a claim
- where the injured person dies.
In each of these examples, the three year limit will be applied differently. All of these different factors and circumstances matter because if you don’t establish and meet the three-year time limit, you won’t be able to make the claim.
For this reason, it’s important to seek legal advice as soon as you believe you may have suffered from medical negligence. You can contact our team of specialist personal injury solicitors on 0808 169 5899 for expert advice that you can trust.
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