Has your dentist failed to diagnose tooth decay? Has your dentist extracted the wrong tooth? Have you experienced failed treatment? The Dental Law Partnership are the leading specialist dental negligence solicitors in the UK and can help you to build a strong compensation case against your dentist.
Dental negligence lies under the umbrella of the very broad term clinical negligence and can be defined as an avoidable injury caused by your dentist (however mild or severe). Your dentist’s duty of care to you covers not only what they do but also certain things that they also fail to do.
So, How Long Does a Dental Negligence Claim Take?
The timeline of a dental negligence claim is influenced by many factors, including: the complexity of the case, the type of evidence required and how long that takes to collect, the willingness of the parties to settle, and the court’s schedule if the case does go to trial. While some claims may be resolved within a year, others could take several years to reach settlement.
We cannot specify a precise timescale when you first enquire with us as each case, we handle is very different. But we have come up with a breakdown of the claims journey so you can see a timeline of events as your claim progresses.
- Initial Investigations
On average, this takes 6-9 months, 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 you have a case of negligence.
There are several things our teams will consider when deciding as to whether we can accept your dental negligence claim or not:
- Your individual circumstances
- The nature of your complaint and the reported negligence of your dentist
- The severity of the injury, pain or suffering caused as a result of the poor dental care
- Any additional costs you may have incurred as a direct result of the negligence
- Supporting Evidence
If your claim is accepted you will need to sign some paperwork, this includes our no-win, no-fee conditional fee agreement. You will then be assigned a dedicated paralegal who will collect your dental records and other supporting evidence. Legally, your dentist has to keep your dental records for a minimum of two years. Once we have gathered all the evidence our team of in-house dento-legal advisors will work through the details of your case, working though the chronology and assessing your claim.
- Letter of Claim
If your claim is considered strong enough it will be allocated to one of our expert solicitors, you can meet them all on our team page here. Your solicitor will draft a letter of claim, which will then be submitted to the defendant. The defendant has 4 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.
- Negotiations
In most cases, your claim will be resolved during the negotiation period, which means you won’t need to go to court to settle your claim. However, in the very rare occasions that negotiations fail, the case may need to enter court proceedings. If this happens, your specialist solicitor will go through the next steps with you and will guide you through the whole process.
- Settlement
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.
But it is essential for anyone pursuing dental negligence claims with us to be patient, stay informed about the progress of your case, and work closely with your experienced solicitor who can guide you through the legal process.
Do I have a claim for dental negligence?
Whether you have a valid claim for dental negligence depends on several factors. Essentially, together we would need to prove:
- That you did not receive the standard of care you reasonably expect from a competent dentist.
- The negligence directly caused an injury or resulted in a worse outcome for yourself
This where the Dental Law Partnership team step in and take the reins in helping you, we can assess the specific details of your case. Still not sure if you’ve experienced dental negligence or not? Head over to our self-assessment tool and find out for yourself if you could potentially have a claim for compensation today.
Or you can contact us directly today to discuss your claim.