A TV producer was left permanently disabled after bungling paramedics "pressed the wrong button" on a defibrillator during a cardiac arrest. Meg Fozzard now lives with lasting disabilities after her brain was deprived of oxygen when ambulance crews delayed a potentially life-saving electric shock by eight critical minutes, having failed to operate a defibrillator correctly. Meg has since won an undisclosed settlement following legal action against the NHS. The producer - just

Clinical negligence lawyers have urged the government not to be swayed by suggestions that they are to blame for soaring costs. Sharon Allison, chair of the Society of Clinical Injury Lawyers, said policymakers should give more time to the ongoing efforts to collaborate with defence representatives, rather than rushing into a counter productive reform spree. The government has said it will decide in the autumn whether to pursue fixed recoverable costs for lower value claims a

If AI is involved in a medical error, who should be held accountable: the clinician or developer? Surgeons, lawyers, and forensic experts have addressed this question, which is expected to become more pressing in the coming years. Experts converged on a key point: chatbots and other decision support tools are linked to adverse events. The central issue is whether negligence has occurred, and if so, who bears responsibility. However, this question remains complex. AI is reshap

The government's plan for bringing down the multi-billion-pound clinical negligence costs bill will be revealed this autumn, the Treasury has said. According to the Treasury's response to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on clinical negligence, the government accepts the basic premise that the Department of Health and Social Care has failed to tackle rising costs despite repeated warnings. The Treasury said it will write to the committee by this autumn to set out

A deeply moving new short film lays bare the life-changing impact that the law on personal injury compensation can have for families whose lives are torn apart by negligence. Kayleigh and her 11-year-old son Charlie, who suffered a significant hypoxic brain injury at birth and has cerebral palsy affecting all four limbs, are the focus of the public awareness film for APIL’s Rebuilding Shattered Lives campaign. “Shining a spotlight on a clinical negligence case like Charlie

The campaign to retain the presumption that personal injury compensation should pay for private healthcare faces a new battle front, with legislation on the table to reform the status quo. A private member's bill was laid in the Commons last week by Labour's Catherine McKinnell to amend the Law Reform (Personal Injuries) Act, which has been in force since 1948. The measure entitles claimants to recover the cost of private medical treatment, providing it is proportionate and n

New figures have exposed the extent of a rapid consolidation that has wiped out swaths of the personal injury market. A report commissioned by the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers revealed that the number of firms receiving more than half their revenue from claims fell by 37% to 442 between 2019/20 and 2024/5. The number of specialist PI lawyers has also contracted sharply: the number of barristers working in the sector fell 22% to 1,181 between 2019 and 2025; and the

A trusted solicitor who took advantage of vulnerable victims of the mesh implant scandal has been struck off for a catalogue of lies and cover-ups. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal concluded that Darren Hanison’s behaviour had been ‘deplorable’ as he falsified ATE policies, left clients at risk of costs penalties and settled cases for his own profit. Hanison, admitted in 1995, founded Fortitude Law in 2015 and focused his practice on pursuing claims for allegedly negligen

Defence lawyers say the imposition of a new cap on medical agency commission is a major change in how personal injury claims are handled. Horwich Farrelly, which represented some of the defendants in JXX v Archibald, described the outcome as a ‘major victory’ for the wider insurance market. In the case, Senior Costs Judge Rowley said that medical reporting agencies did not need to provide a breakdown of costs but should be subject to a cap on their charges, limited to 25% of

There is no requirement to break down the costs in every case where a litigation service has been provided, the High Court has ruled. In Motor Insurers’ Bureau v Santiago Mr Justice Moody rejected a request from defendants that solicitors should specify the cost of interpreter services included as part of the wider bill. The ruling is a significant marker in the long-running dispute between claimant lawyers and paying parties about the level of detail provided for cost as

A teenage footballer who died after collapsing during a match was not given CPR because a 999 call handler and those present did not recognise the signs of a cardiac arrest, a coroner has found. Adam Ankers, 17, was playing for the Wycombe Wanderers’ Foundation Under-19 team on 31 January 2024 when, towards the end of the second half, he shouted "my chest is tight" before falling unconscious. Paramedics were called to the Cressex Sports Pitch Centre, and the teenager was rush

Jack Moate died two months after Kuldeep Stohr performed surgery on him in 2015. Jack suffered "significant blood loss" during the operation and was left in continuous pain. His mother, Elizabeth Moate said: "They sent my boy home, and he died in agony." She said she "felt pressured" to give consent for the operation, fearing it might be too much for her son, who had complex medical needs. Independent experts recently assessed Jack's case as part of a wider investigation into

Witness statements and expert reports submitted to court in civil cases may need to be accompanied by declarations that they are not generated with the help of AI, according to new rules proposed by the Civil Justice Council. Requiring 'enhanced statements of truth' is among the proposals floated by the council's consulttation on the use of AI for preparing court documents. In an interim report published this month , the council's AI working group examines the need for rules

It comes after a test case involving an 11 year old child, whose family sued Sheffield Teaching Hospitals. Children can receive damages for the years of their life that will be lost because of medical negligence, the Supreme Court has ruled, overturning a more than 40-year-old legal ruling. The UK's highest court found on Wednesday that a 1981 Court of Appeal judgment, which stated children cannot receive damages despite adults and teenagers being allowed to do so under the l

A judge has given an excoriating assessment of experts instructed in a personal injury case which was described as having failed ‘by a long way’. His Honour Judge Gallagher, sitting at Canterbury County Court in Clark v Skyfire Insurance Company Limited , said the claimant had ‘not come within a country mile’ of establishing her claim. The judge did not suggest that claimant had been fundamentally dishonest, but instead blamed two experts instructed to prove her case as well

In 2025, Stewart House received 2% of it’s work in relation to Accident and Emergency negligence. Sepsis was the largest occurrence closely followed by misdiagnosed fractures. Interestingly, delayed diagnosis of a stroke is one of the fewest types of cases we have been asked to provide evidence on. Lets take a look at the two highest ranking areas of negligence that we have been asked to report on: SEPSIS In a joint study between Negligence Claimline and Stewart House

The number of law firms in England and Wales has dropped below 9,000 for the first time in recent history amid continuing consolidation, a long-running regular market study has revealed. However the consolidation came amid continued growth in the market for legal services, which rose by 6.1% in 2025 at current prices. According to the 16th edition of the UK Legal Services Market Trends Report, published by IRN Legal Reports, turnover of all businesses engaged in legal activit

MPs have told the government that it cannot wait any longer to address the issues of legal costs and damages costing the NHS millions every year. In a wide-ranging report published today, the Public Accounts Committee states that a failure to tackle the underlying causes of harm to patients was a key factor behind the government’s liability for clinical negligence quadrupling in the last 20 years to £60bn. But it also highlights ways in which savings can be made in claimant

cross-party parliamentary watchdog has warned that spiralling legal costs and systemic failures in how patient harm is addressed are compounding the NHS’s clinical negligence crisis. It urged the government to set out concrete plans — with deadlines — to tackle these problems. In a new report , the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) could not demonstrate that it had taken “any meaningful action” to address cl

Ambulance-chasing lawyers were paid half a billion pounds from NHS budgets last year as clinical negligence claims spiralled out of control, a damning report by MPs reveals. Legal teams typically pocketed almost four-times more in fees than harmed patients received in compensation, the Commons Public Accounts Committee said. Costs in clinical negligence claims have risen sharply in recent years, with claimant legal fees more than tripling in real terms from £148 million in 2