| What we do – how
we can help you |
| Our Client Care Quality Policy |
"The Dental Law Partnership specialises in dental negligence. We believe that focusing on this area we are able to provide the best possible service for all our clients, who can rely on both our in-house dental and legal expertise and our creative legal thinking in the field.
From the moment you contact us we will take the time to listen to you, and take care to communicate with you using non-technical language. We act only for dental patients like you, and will work with the utmost professionalism, efficiency and confidentiality to support you in your claim. We have chosen to make our mission that of providing the highest quality access to justice for the dental patient, and we are committed to do everything we can to ensure that you are satisfied with the service we provide." |
| How we can help you negligent dentist |
| With our specialist expertise and many
years experience of ‘no win no cost ’ dental
negligence cases we know that each client’s case
is unique. Because of this, we see a partnership between
ourselves and our clients as the best way of seeing
a case through to a successful conclusion. We feel
that it is important for you to know what you can expect
from us if you choose us to help you with your dental
claim. |
| So we have set out this brief guide
as to how clients can expect their
claims to progress – details of the steps we
take and some information about parts of the process,
which are distinctive to the specialised service, which
we offer. |
|
| 1. Your first contact with us |
| Our relationship with clients usually
begins with a telephone call to our freephone number
0800 0853 823, which connects you to one of our legal
team. A member of our team will listen to your problem
and be able to advise on your legal rights and, from
experience of many previous dental cases, discuss whether
a claim could possibly be brought in the circumstances. |
| Alternatively some clients prefer to
email us on info@dentallaw.co.uk,
and other people
obtain free legal advice from us using our website
based online service. |
| 2. Our claim check Questionnaire |
|
| If a claim is being considered then
we will send out to you by post a straightforward claim
check questionnaire which asks you for details of your
claim, along with general information about the firm.
This claim check questionnaire is also available online
on this website and can be submitted online to make
completing it easier. Sometimes you may need help from
us in order to complete the questionnaire and this
is available on freephone 0800 0853 823. |
| 3. Questionnaire assessment |
|
| Once you have returned the questionnaire
it will be read and assessed by one of the firm’s
directors– all of whom are solicitors and dentists.
We will then contact you to let you know whether we
can take your case on or whether we may need some further
information. Sometimes we find that the case may not
stand a good chance of success and if so we write to
you giving our reasons why. |
| 4. Your own legal representative |
|
| If we are able to accept the case then
your case will be allocated to one of our legal staff.
The directors do not run any cases but are closely involved
in assisting, and supervising, other solicitors and
legal staff in their cases as well as continually assessing
cases from both a legal, and a clinical, viewpoint.
Your member of our legal staff will be your point of
contact throughout your claim and will be available
to answer all your queries and guide you through the
process, as well as representing you in your legal
claim. If you look at the ‘who we are’ page
on the site you will find biographies of each member
of our team and their direct email addresses so that
you can get the advice you need. |
| 5. No win - no cost arrangements |
|
| The first thing we will do is discuss
with you in detail how your case is to be run. Most
of our cases are run on Law Society approved Conditional
Fee Agreements (in other words ‘no win – no
cost’ agreements). Sometimes our clients have
existing legal expenses insurance cover as part of
their home insurances and we are usually able to work
with the insurer under the terms of the policy. Whichever
way the case is to be run, as solicitors working under
the regulation of Solicitors Regulatory Authority, we have to explain
in detail how the agreement works between us. Usually
we can explain this by telephone but we are always
happy to meet with clients at our offices in Cheshire
or North London to do this. |
| From this point on we will be acting
on your behalf and we will deal for you with dentist
and their insurers. |
| 6. Getting the records |
|
| The first real progress we make on
the case is to obtain all the relevant dental records.
Often we need to obtain many sets of records which
go back many years and for this reason it can sometimes
take up to 3 or 4 months to obtain the all the requested
records. |
| 7. Our unique Advice Report |
|
| Once all the records we require are
obtained we then carry out a very detailed assessment
of the case. Your case file is separately read by 2
of the firm’s directors who pay special attention
to the dental records and x-rays and by applying their
dental knowledge and many years experience of dental
cases they jointly assess the strength of your case.
We believe in the old saying that “two heads
are better than one” and consider that the expertise
of 2 directors ensures that our case is thoroughly investigated.
At this point one of the partners will prepare a detailed
Advice Report into your case, exploring all the different
aspects of your claim in great detail. This is an important
document for you and of course we will send this to
you, and invite your comments. |
| We know from the experience of assessing
thousands of cases that it is only when the dental
records are obtained that we can really be able to
properly assess the case. Occasionally at this stage
we find potential problems with the case and we may
advise clients not to continue but, should this happen,
you can be assured that your potential claim has been
expertly and thoroughly assessed at no charge to yourself. |
| In some cases we need to have clients
examined in order for us to be able to reach a decision
and we will either arrange for you to see one of our
tried and trusted experts or sometimes we may examine
you ourselves at our offices. |
| 8. The Letter of Claim |
|
| If we are happy with the strength of
your case, following your Advice Report we will next
prepare a detailed “Letter of Claim”. This
is a step which we must take under Court Rules and
this letter sets out all the case from our investigation
and explains to the negligent dentist’s insurer why we
consider there to be a valid claim and what we consider
the claim to be worth. We will send the first draft
of this letter to you for your approval. |
| 9. Meeting you |
|
| At this time it is then essential that
we meet with you to discuss your case, and in order
to make this as easy as possible for you we can arrange
a meeting at either our Northern or Southern office.
Establishing a good relationship with our clients,
explaining both the legal and clinical complexities
and helping clients through a complicated legal process
are key factors to success in a case. We need to meet
with you at this stage as there is a lot to do… |
| We need to; |
|
ensure you are happy with the proposed
Letter of Claim and make any required amendments, |
|
go through the dental records and take a detailed
statement from you, |
|
discuss the strength of the case and expected
future progress, |
|
discuss with you whether we should obtain insurance
for your case and, if so, explain how this will
work and take you through completing the application
forms. |
|
| 10. The Letter of Response and settlement |
|
| Once we have finalised the Letter of
Claim we then send this to the dentist’s insurers
who then, under the Court Rules, have 3 months in which
to provide their detailed reply in a “Letter
of Response”. We have at this stage carried out
a detailed investigation of your case and set this
out to the dentist’s insurer and at this stage
we must wait for their reply. |
| We find that with the delays we sometimes
encounter in obtaining records, the length of time
it takes for us to carry out our detailed 2 partner
assessment, the frequent need to obtain further evidence,
the slight delay there can be in arranging a convenient
time to meet and then delays caused by the dentist’s
insurers, that it can take around a year from taking
the case on until we receive the insurers “Letter
of Response”. |
| In many of our cases the “Letter
of Response” we receive from the dentists’ insurers
includes an offer to settle the case and a settlement
can be achieved at this time. Often the initial offer
is not good enough and with negotiation a higher offer
is received and settlement can be achieved. Unfortunately
sometimes the dentist’s insurers deny the case
and make no offer and we then need to move things forward
for you by considering court proceedings – full
details of which are set out in this site on the ‘claim progress ’ page. |
| 11. Funding your claim |
|
| There is a range of funding arrangements
to pay for your legal representation. We will advise
you at the very start of the most appropriate funding
option for you and advise you of the costs of pursuing
a claim against your dentist. In this country the loser
in litigation pays the winner’s costs. |
| Conditional fee agreement – ‘no
win no cost ’ |
| This is an agreement between the Dental
Law Partnership Solicitors Limited and you that means that we will only
charge you in the event that the claim is successful.
If your claim is unsuccessful then you will not be
charged and we will not be paid any legal
costs. In the event that your claim is successful we
charge a premium known as a success fee to reward us
for taking the risk of not being paid if the case had
lost. Of course your costs in a successful claim can
be recovered from the dentist’s insurer or defence
organization. You may also be advised to take out an
insurance policy, which will pay your opponent’s
costs if your claim is successfully defended. |
| Legal Expenses Insurance |
| Some clients, sometimes even without
being aware of it, already have the benefit of an insurance
policy, which will pay their legal fees if they pursue
a clinical negligence claim. This is often included
in household contents and motor insurance policies
and we will help you to find out if you have such a
policy and liaise with your insurer on your behalf. |
| Legal Aid |
| Legal aid is available for certain
high value and complicated dental negligence claims
for clients who satisfy certain financial criteria.
We will advise whether you and your claim are eligible
for legal aid. |
