Dental Law Claims

How long will my dental claim take to resolve?

 

This depends upon whether the Defendant admits or denies liability. It will take approximately a month to gather your medical and dental records together, and a further week to draft your letter of claim, which is then sent out to you for your approval, to ensure that all of the details are correct.  The Defendant dentist then has 4 months under the court rules to either admit liability for you dental claim, or deny liability giving their reasons for doing so.  It is after the expiry of this 4 month time limit that we will know whether your dental claim is admitted or denied.

Dental claims which are admitted at this stage can settle relatively quickly.  If your claim is denied at this stage, then we must consider issuing court proceedings, once all of the relevant medical evidence has been obtained.

 

To give you an idea, the shortest dental claim that I have dealt with took just 3 weeks to settle.  The longest dental negligence claim that I dealt with took 6 years to settle.  You can see how difficult advising on how long a dental claim will take really is.

 

How much compensation will I get for my dental injuries?

 

We do not know the answer to this question until we have received your dental report.  Dental injures are difficult to work out, as each person is different, as is each case.  We try to treat each dental case individually.  As a general rule of thumb, the longer you take to recover from any incident, the higher any award for damages will be.  We should however at a fairly early stage be able to advise you upon the amount (quantum) of your dental claim.  More info on general damages

 

Can I claim for other expenses incurred during my dental claim?

 

Yes, but only expenses properly and reasonably incurred, and incurred due to the defendant’s negligence.  Other common heads of special damages are loss of earnings, traveling expenses, and future and past treatment costs.

During my dental claim, will I have to attend for a medical examination?

 

This depends upon whether the defendant admits or denies liability.  It is fairly likely that you will have to attend a suitable expert for a dental examination, as your own doctor or dentist will only be concerned in getting you better.  For the purposes of your dental claim, we always instruct an expert to provide a detailed medical legal report setting out your injuries and giving a prognosis for your recovery, and this is how your compensation is valued by us.  You own doctor or dentist will not be considered to be “independent” for the purposes of your dental claim.

 

Will my dental claim go to Court?

 

Many people look forward to going and having “their day” in court.  If we have to issue proceedings, then there are a number of procedural steps and a court timetable that we have to adhere to before any trial date is set.  Most cases settle outside of the court, and only a very small minority ever get to the trial stage

 

The dentist has apologised to me.  Is this an admission of his/her guilt in my dental claim?

 

No.  Under section 2 of the Compensation Act 2006 says " An apology or an offer of dental treatment or other redress shall not of itself amount to an admission of negligence or breach of statutory duty".