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@ anon 13.36

because for fixed costs to work, the system must be "simple" and straightforward.

I'll give you an example of a case I'm working on. GP failed to spot signs of sepsis in a patient and refer. Patient fell more ill. Ambulance was called but misdiagnosed as suffering a stomach bug. Patient collapsed. Taken into hospital, and treatment was delayed in A&E. Eventually taken up to ITU where he was given inotropric support but he died. No spouse so no bereavement damages, and therefore looking at a claim significantly under £25k.

On the above, I have to get a breach of duty report from a GP, ambulance technician/paramedic, and A&E consultant to establish breach. I would then have to consider obtaining a microbiologist report to assess causation and if earlier intervention would have altered the outcome. I would then have to obtain an expert to discuss life expectancy to calculate how long he would have lived.

So I have to obtain a minimum of 5 reports before I even know if there's a case to answer. I then have to consider the cost of those reports, the cost to obtain all records, review the same, paginate the same, have a conference with all experts and counsel to test their evidence so that a Letter of Claim can be prepared.

And that's just to get it to Letter of Claim stage, nevermind into commencement of proceedings! How can fixed costs apply to a case like this?

Simple answer is: it can't. Unless a case warrants minimal expert input and the defendant admits early, fixed costs will always be prejudicial to the claimant as it will prevent a case being investigated properly

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