Industry Expert View: Lydia Brindley
Lydia Brindley joined the executive team of The Society of Clinical Injury Lawyers (SCIL) last year after more than 13 years as a medical negligence solicitor. She is currently director at Graystons Solicitors, a boutique medical negligence firm based on the edge of Chester and the Wirral.
The role of a medical negligence solicitor is still misunderstood by many people who work outside the legal profession.
We’re not anti-NHS. Far from it. We understand that things do go wrong sometimes and that it’s not always someone else’s fault. Of the tens of thousands of people we speak to every year, only a fraction will meet the threshold for legal action.
Those that do, the victims I encounter, are people whose lives have been ripped apart by the avoidable actions of others. It should not happen, but it does, and they deserve to be heard.
That’s why it is vital that claimant solicitors and organisations like SCIL, of which around 70 law firms are members, continue to give them a voice and protect their right to receive access to justice.
An alternative to fixed recoverable costs?
The planned introduction of fixed recoverable costs (FRC) to lower value clinical negligence claims up to £25,000 will have a huge impact on the amount of this work that firms are able to do.
Whilst the pre-action protocol is not yet finalised, it seems inevitable that the restrictions imposed will see some firms exiting the market. We have already seen this play out with the whiplash reforms. Bigger and niche specialist firms will be in the strongest position, and to that end I think we will see more firms choosing to merge.
I became a solicitor because I wanted to help individuals use their voice when coming up against one of the most respected establishments in the world and the epitome of Britishness. Without specialist legal advice, the individual’s ability to stand up to the NHS and articulate their complaint will be almost impossible. I oppose these reforms in their current form because the victims of medical negligence will be even further wronged by limiting their right to redress if they can’t access the advice they need.
Medical negligence is a complex area of law where the value of a claim doesn’t necessarily reflect the harm caused and to oversimplify it risks penalising the victims who, we can all agree, have already suffered enough. It is not acceptable to limit access to justice for those whose claims are deemed low value. Often claims involving the most vulnerable and economically disadvantaged are the lowest value.
At Graystons, we want to continue serving everyone, regardless of which track their claim falls into. We will continue to fight against the current proposals for reform until a time when an alternative serves the victims as it should. We are passionate advocates of the alternative put forward by SCIL. Simply limiting the costs of each claim will not achieve the aims of any party.
The SCIL Scheme proposes a different system. It encourages a culture of accountability and learning rather than aggressively defending claims that could and should be settled early on. Collaboration is key and the system should promote and facilitate that. Sometimes all claimants want is for someone to say that they’re sorry and explain.
Making our voices heard
I got involved with SCIL, partly through our managing director Julie Grayston who was a founding member, and partly as a result of two days I spent in London lobbying parliament. I learned more about what SCIL were doing, and I wanted to be a part of that.
Reform has been talked about since not long after I qualified as a solicitor in 2011 but, whether it happens as planned in October or not, there will be other challenges to face in the future. We must not assume that a Labour government won’t proceed with FRC, or that the general election will delay them for long, but instead use it as an opportunity to communicate our message to candidates from all parties.
We need to ensure that our voices are heard and that those in government understand the impact these changes will have. We make the greatest impression when we speak as one. If you aren’t currently a member of SCIL please do join us. Now more than ever we need to be heard as businesses and as a voice for the individual victims who are largely unaware of these changes and their effect.
The recent SCIL conference was a huge success, and we thank everyone who attended. If you missed it and would like to find out more about our work, visit scil.org.uk.
