Brain Injury Claims

Coodes’ specialist Clinical Negligence lawyers help clients throughout the South West and beyond to successfully pursue brain injury claims resulting from clinical negligence. If you or a loved one has suffered a brain injury as a result of clinical negligence during medical treatment or surgery, we can help you secure the justice and compensation to which you are entitled.

Our approach to brain injury claims

We understand that a brain injury caused by mistakes or negligence during medical treatment or surgery will be devastating, with long-term consequences both for you and your family. Our Clinical Negligence team are experts in brain injury claims and have helped hundreds of clients to get vital financial awards. We combine expert legal knowledge in this field with a sympathetic and human approach. We will break down the jargon and help you to understand how to make a complaint and launch a claim for compensation.

Working closely with expert medical professionals, we will help build your case, showing where treatment and care was negligent and how it has contributed to your brain injury. We will provide guidance at every stage of your claim so that you have the best possible chance of securing compensation.

Of course, financial awards can’t fully compensate you or your loved one for a brain injury resulting from clinical negligence or address the long-term consequences. But compensation can help you to make any necessary adjustments to your lifestyle and help you get your life back on track. Compensation could also help to provide vital support if a loved one has lost the capacity to work as a result of their brain injury, or if they have died.

Many of the birth injury clinical negligence claims that we advise on are handled on a no win no fee basis, meaning that there is no financial risk to you if your claim is unsuccessful.

Can you make a claim for brain injury resulting from clinical negligence?

Our Clinical Negligence team have specialist expertise in making claims for brain injury resulting from clinical negligence. There are many possible causes for brain injury, but among the most common are:

• Surgical errors including mistakes in anaesthesia
• Mistakes during pregnancy, labour and childbirth
• Failure or delay to diagnose and treat serious conditions such as cerebral bleeds, raised intracranial pressure, brain tumours or abscesses
• Infection
• Medication errors
• A lack of oxygen – anoxia

If you or a loved one have suffered a brain injury as a result of clinical negligence, we can help you claim compensation. Our specialist clinical negligence lawyers, working with expert medical professionals, will work out how it happened and who was responsible, and support you throughout the claim process.

Although Coodes’ medical negligence lawyers are based in Cornwall and Devon, we cover the whole of England and Wales and will come and see you wherever you are. We act for clients anywhere in the world so long as the brain injury for which you are claiming took place in England and Wales.

How much will your brain injury claim cost?

In many cases, we will be able to support you on a no win no fee basis, meaning that if your claim is not successful, you will not have to pay any legal fees. If your child has suffered serious brain injury at birth as a result of clinical negligence you may be eligible for legal aid to support your claim.

Whatever your case, we offer a free initial consultation to help you understand the process and the likely funding basis of your claim.

How long do you have to make a brain injury clinical negligence claim?

You usually have up to three years from the date of the injury or when its effects were first apparent to start a clinical negligence claim for brain injury.

If the claim is for your child, you have until their 18th birthday to make a claim on their behalf. After this it becomes the responsibility of the child to make the claim, with the three-year limit starting when they reach the age of 18. If they lack the ‘capacity’ to handle their own affairs, the time limit does not apply. Similarly, if the brain injury claim is on behalf of an adult incapable of handling their own affairs, the limitation does not apply.

We recommend that you contact us as soon as possible, so that our clinical negligence lawyers can explain the process of claiming compensation, start your claim and help you access any other support and/or rehabilitation you need.

How much compensation could you receive?

Every case of brain injury is different. That’s why it is important to get expert advice from qualified specialist lawyers who really understand the unique nature of each brain injury claim and who are experienced in working with medical professionals to truly understand its long-term implications.

The amount you can claim will depend on a number of factors, including the severity of the injury, any financial losses you or your loved one have suffered or will suffer in the future, and any changes to your lifestyle that you have to make as a result of the brain injury. Whatever the case, our specialist clinical negligence lawyers will ensure that you get the compensation and support you are entitled to.

Legal aid

Legal aid funding is available in cases involving children who have suffered serious brain injury during pregnancy, childbirth or during their first eight weeks of life. If this injury has resulted in severe disability to the child, public funding may be available to investigate a medical negligence claim. Coodes are the only firm locally to be able to offer this funding option.

In many cases, if your claim is not eligible for legal aid, we will be able to support you on a no win no fee basis, meaning that if your claim is not successful, you will not have to pay any legal fees.