How does the Dental Law process work?
As previously stated, every situation is different and the case proceedings will depend largely on your own individual circumstances.
However, there is a general claims process we usually follow, which may give you more of an idea of what to expect when you seek legal advice from the Dental Law Partnership.
The process usually takes the following steps:
- When you first get in touch with the Dental Law Partnership, a member of our experienced team will go through a questionnaire with you and take down your details. This initial phone call will be used to decide whether or not your case is something we can accept.
- Once your claim has been accepted, you’ll need to sign some paperwork, including our no-win, no-fee conditional fee agreement. Your information will then be passed on to one of our paralegals and we’ll collect your dental records so that we can establish a timeline for your case. Legally, your dentist has to keep your dental records for a minimum of two years.
- Our team of in-house dento-legal advisors will work through the details of your case and assess your claim, making a decision as to whether it’s strong enough to pursue.
- If we decide that you have a strong claim, your case will be allocated to one of our expert solicitors. Your dental negligence solicitor will draft a letter of claim, which will then be submitted to the defendant. The defendant has four months to respond to the letter of claim. Once they have responded, your specialist solicitor will then start to negotiate with the defendant (or their representative) to settle your claim.
- In most situations, your case will be resolved during the negotiations period, which means you won’t need to go to court to settle your claim. However, if negotiations fail, the case may need to enter court proceedings . If this happens, your specialist solicitor will go through the next steps with you.
We will always endeavour to achieve a negotiated settlement of your dental negligence claim. The majority of claims are resolved at a relatively early stage and without the need to commence court proceedings. However, on occasion a dentist may strongly resist a claim, or additional information may come to light which affects the claim.
Because of this, sometimes it is necessary to commence court proceedings in order to resolve the claim.
It doesn’t matter whether your negligent treatment took place at an NHS surgery or a private dental surgery, as we can start dental claims regardless of the setting.
We can’t advise on how long your claim will take without knowing your individual circumstances, as this is something that is different for every case. You also need to be aware that there is a strict three-year time limit for any dental negligence claims from the date the negligence occurred, or from the date you were first made aware of the problem, so it’s important to contact us as soon as possible.
