Legal fees in medical negligence cases criticised

Legal fees in most medical negligence cases should be capped to 20 per cent of the award and tough financial penalties imposed on lawyers who bring forward cases without merit, according to a new report.

The Medical Protection Society, which provides indemnity cover for 16,000 Irish doctors, says "gravy train" legal fees are driving up health costs for patients and forcing doctors to join the "brain drain" leaving Ireland. The society has called for new legislation to reform the way medical negligence cases are handled, including limits on the damages and costs that can be claimed and a shortening of the time period in which cases can be brought forward.

Rising claims

The society says increases in the number of medical negligence claims and in the size of awards are threatening the sustainability of some areas of private medical practice. If this results in a shift in workload to the public sector, the pressure on public hospitals will grow.

Escalating legal costs have been blamed for a 90 per cent rise in the cost of providing indemnity cover for consultants in the past two years. This was one factor in the end of private obstetric practice at Mount Carmel Hospital in Dublin and its eventual closure last year.

"The cost of medical negligence claims is paid ultimately by patients, either through taxation or the cost of healthcare," the society's director of patient engagement John Tiernan said. "Society has to ask itself whether this is affordable or not."

The society says the rise in the cost of indemnity cover is a result of large increases in the rate at which private hospital consultants are being sued and the average size of claims. In a report, it claims the economic downturn has led to a “compensation culture” in which claimants pursue more cases and lawyers have moved into medical negligence as an “alternative and more attractive source of income”.

Legal system

“The lack of a speedy and transparent system leads to a pressure to settle claims in circumstances where we would not do so elsewhere in the world.”

The report says the Irish legal system does not do enough to discourage unmeritorious claims, for example when a plaintiff’s lawyers are unable to get solid expert support for a claim. It also allows cases to drag on for many years, and the courts are reluctant to strike out claims even when they have failed to progress.

The report says some lawyers even run cases without strong expert support until the last moment in the hope that the defendant will settle.