Solicitor firm that represented Vicky Phelan earned €6.68m from State in medical negligence claims in 18 months

Cian O’Carroll Solicitors, the legal firm that represented the late Vicky Phelan in her High Court case against CervicalCheck, has received fees of €6.68 million over the last 18 months from the State Claims Agency (SCA) arising from medical negligence cases.

New figures from Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, show the top 10 firms representing plaintiffs in medical negligence cases against the State shared a cumulative €28.7 million last year.

The fees paid by the SCA to the best-paid firms increased this year with the top 10 sharing fees of €15.9 million between January and the end of June.

Cian O’Carroll’s Cashel-based legal firm received €4.1 million for 20 claims last year and a further €2.57 million relating to seven claims for the first six months of this year.

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The most received by a single firm last year was Michael Boylan Litigation Law Firm which was paid €6.27 million for 20 claims. Mr Boylan’s firm is again the highest paid this year, receiving €4.54 million in relation to 15 claims.

Mr O’Carroll said that the figures paid out by the SCA to plaintiff firms also include fees for barristers and experts, as well as other outlays, including 23 per cent VAT.

“Ultimately, while this type of data is interesting, it fails to analyse the real problem at play which is the huge human cost of medical negligence. Patients don’t want damages, they want quality medical care.”

Mr O’Carroll said that his own practice employs 11 solicitors “and a supporting team of another 12 working on medical negligence cases for our clients”.

Mr O’Carroll continues to represent a number of women who participated in the CervicalCheck programme. The solicitor also represented the late Emma Mhic Mhathúna, who received a €7.5 million High Court settlement from the HSE and a US laboratory in 2018.

In Dáil replies to Catherine Murphy of the Social Democrats, Mr Donnelly stated that the SCA has received 385 claims concerning CervicalCheck, including 79 psychological injury claims from members of the families of the women concerned.

“In relation to the 385 claims received, 183 are active and not yet concluded and 202 have concluded,” said Mr Donnelly.

“It should be noted that most of the claims have been settled by the laboratories involved in the individual claims.”

The figures also show that last year Callan Tansey Solicitors received €3.92 million for 29 claims; Damien Tansey Solicitors received €3.7 million for 21 claims; Augustus Cullen Law Solicitors received €3.07 million for 21 claims; while Cantillons received €2.95 million for 13 claims.

From January to June this year, Augustus Cullen Law Solicitors received €2.5 million for 15 claims, with Callan Tansey Solicitors receiving €2.04 million for 12 claims, while Cantillons received €1.75 million for five claims and Damien Tansey Solicitors received €1.34 million for 10 claims.

Mr O’Carroll said that the plaintiff cost figures including the number of claims “clearly illustrates how the costs and the legal professional fees that form part of those costs are dictated by the cases themselves”.

He said: “Some cases, particularly complex medical negligence cases, are fought to the end and require huge inputs of time by the legal teams and the expert medical teams who ultimately decide that the care a person received amounted to negligence yet in every one of those cases, the HSE paid damages and costs.”