Swindon Solicitor

A YEAR TO REMEMBER (AND FORGET)

2011-12-21T00:25:00.000-08:00

So much has happened in 2011. We at S J Edney have continued to act for a number of clients who have been injured and are entitled to compensation. Their claims vary from people who have been injured at hospital due to an error made by either a doctor or nurse and others injured at work, in a road accident or at a public place.

Mrs Janice Lawrence sought our advice about an independent report which was published in November 2011 following the death of her parents in 2007. This was a terrible case as her elderly parents were killed by their son (her brother) Mr Tim Crook in horrific circumstances. The independent inquiry acknowledged a number of failings on the part of two mental health services including Swindon which had resulted in the deterioration of Mr Crook’s medical condition which, in turn, led to these killings. Read more about this case.

2011 has also been a dreadful year for legal aid lawyers. Swingeing cuts of £350m will be made from the existing legal aid budget and are bound to impact on the most vulnerable people in our society and their ability to have access to justice. Personal injury lawyers are also smarting due to the proposed changes in the costs awarded from unsuccessful Defendants which are likely to make personal injury cases less profitable in the future.

In the new year, the Solicitors Regulation Authority will begin to regulate Alternative Business Structures which permit non lawyers to provide legal services direct to the public. It will be interesting to see how much competition the traditional law firm will face from these new market entrants.

Happy Christmas

2011-12-21T00:24:00.001-08:00

THE TEAM AT S J EDNEY WOULD LIKE TO WISH ALL OUR CLIENTS A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR

Road accident causing brain injury

2011-04-18T02:03:00.000-07:00

We are acting for a young man (now aged 17) who was involved in a road accident in Gloucester during May 2007. His parents had consulted another solicitor and were told that their son did not have a personal injury claim and they had come to our firm for a second opinion. This was a difficult case. Our client (who was then aged 13) and two of his friends were crossing a busy road. His two friends managed to cross the road on foot safely but when our client followed a short time later on his bicycle, he was struck by an oncoming car. Sadly, he suffered a severe head injury. In our view, blame attached to both the driver and our client for what had happened. The driver had been driving too fast in the circumstances given the congested area with children about but our client had emerged from between stationary traffic into the path of this driver without checking that it was safe to do so. A letter of claim was submitted to the driver’s insurers who disputed liability. Proceedings had to be issued at the Bristol District Registry. An early offer of 25%/75% in the driver’s favour was made but was rejected. After a number of further offers and counter offers we were able to apportion liability on a 38.5%/61.5% basis in the driver’s favour giving our client 38.5% of full liability damages. His damages will now need to be assessed.

The terms of this settlement were approved by the Judge at Bristol District Registry on the 13 April 2011.

THE NEGLECT OF THE ELDERLY IN THE NHS

2011-04-07T14:55:00.000-07:00

This has been another bad few weeks for the NHS. Channel Four aired a programme on 28 February 2011 (Dispatches : Secret NHS Diaries) which made very uncomfortable viewing – it highlighted the shocking inadequacies of palliative care in the NHS. It featured an elderly man spending his final days in hospital. He was treated with appalling insensitivity by the nursing staff, even during simple everyday tasks such as mealtimes.

This programme came in the wake of a damming report from Ann Abraham, the Health Service Ombudsman, who had carried out an in-depth review of ten cases all involving patients aged over 65, and concluded that they all had suffered unnecessary pain, neglect and distress.

Read more by Swindon Solicitor Seamus Edney

Tetraplegic man Jamie Merrett's life support 'turned off by mistake'

2010-11-23T12:41:00.000-08:00

We are acting for the family of Mr Jamie Merrett 37, from Devizes, whose ventilator was accidentally switched off by an agency nurse working for the NHS, Nurse Violetta Aylward, leaving him brain-damaged.

Mr Merrett has been cared for at home on a life-support machine since 2002 after being left paralysed from the neck downwards following a road accident. Mr Merrett was able to use a wheelchair and was able to talk and operate a computer using despite being tetraplegic.

His sister Karren Reynolds said he had become increasingly worried about serious errors involving nurses operating his ventilator, but claimed that health bosses did not act on e-mails of concern which he sent them.

Click here to read more about Jamie Merrett's case.

2010-10-04T08:50:00.000-07:00

Professional Negligence Claims Soar

The number of professional services firms that are sued for negligence increased by 125% during 2009 to the highest level in more than a decade.

Solicitors face the most lawsuits with negligence claims arising from 80 in 2008 to 210 last year. Many of the claims against solicitors involve allegations of complicity in mortgage fraud. Lenders who have lost money because of mortgage fraud often regard pursuing solicitors and their other professional advisers as their best hope of recovering their losses.

The sharp rise in claims has resulted in huge increases in premiums for professional negligence insurance. Many small law firms, especially those who specialise in conveyancing are facing increases of upto 300% in the cost of their compulsory annual insurance cover which is causing crippling cash flow shortages as their fee income has also dropped due to the recent economic downturn.

The market for solicitors PI insurance was further squeezed by the collapse of Quinn, the Irish insurer that covered about 2900 small law firms in UK. Many of those firms are struggling to find replacement insurance by the 1 October 2010 deadline or have been forced to pay significantly higher premiums.

Workplace Death Rates fall to a record low

Some good news. The number of people killed at work fell to a record low last year according to the Health & Safety Executive (HSE).

The HSE reported that 151 workers were killed between the 1 April 2009 and the 31 March 2010 compared with 178 the previous year. Despite the national trend for fewer deaths at work, the agricultural sector – the most dangerous industry in Britain – showed a marked increase. Last year 38 agriculture workers were killed up from 25 in 2008/09 which is a major cause for concern.

Client Referral Scheme

If a former or an existing client of Swindon Solicitors S.J.Edney recommends either a friend or a member of their family to our firm for advice about an accident or medical negligence claim and we are able to help them, as a token of our thanks we would give that client a £100.00 worth of vouchers of their choice or alternatively make a donation of this value to their nominated charity.

Swindon Solicitors S.J. Edney are Accident Specialists Telephone: 01793 600721

MAYRA CABRERA – HSE PROSECUTION

2010-07-06T04:20:00.000-07:00

Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust were prosecuted by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) after Mayra died at Great Western Hospital in Swindon on the 11 May 2004. Mayra, who was also a nurse at the hospital, was given an epidural drug in her arm instead of saline solution. She died an hour later following medical complications caused by the drug mix-up. Investigations by the HSE and Wiltshire Police showed that the two drugs were stored in the same racking system, despite having almost identical packaging.

On the 17 May 2010, Bristol Crown Court fined the Hospital Trust £75,000.00 after they admitted breaching Section 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 by putting the safety of patients, including Mayra at risk due to the unacceptable storage of drugs and the administration of drugs. The Hospital Trust were also ordered to pay costs of £25,000.00.

Mayra had just given birth to her first child, a boy, when she was wrongly given a rarely-used local anaesthetic, bupivacaine. She had been prescribed a saline solution to help raise her blood pressure, but instead the bupivacaine was selected due to a mix-up.

The consequent Police and HSE investigations showed that there was no proper management system for the storage of the drugs, and warnings from earlier incidents had not been properly dealt with.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector, Liam Osborne, said:-

“This was an absolutely heartbreaking case to investigate. Mayra Cabrera needlessly died as a result of comprehensive management failings at board, pharmacy and ward level.
Had the hospital done something as simple as keeping these completely different but almost identical-looking drugs in separate cupboards then Mrs Cabrera would not have died.
It is really important that risks are properly assessed and safe systems put in place that minimise the chance of human error.
The organisational failure to assess the risks and provide a safe system for the storage of these products placed any patient in the in the Maternity Unit at risk, from when the Great Western Hospital opened in December 2002, until the drugs were removed after Mrs Cabrera died in 2004.
The Trust failed in its duty of care to Mrs Cabrera, and the fact that she used to work for the hospital that ultimately ended her life makes this all the more tragic”

Mayra’s widower, Arnel Cabrera, issued a press release through our firm which said:-

“It has now been six years since my wife, Mayra died and two years since the Inquest into her death was concluded and I would like to thank the HSE for bringing this prosecution and I am pleased with its outcome. It reinforces the importance of the health and safety of patients attending the hospital and in particular the safe storage of dangerous drugs. Now this case has been concluded I am hoping that my young son and I can have some closure and put this terrible tragedy behind us”.

The HSE is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to prevent death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training new or revise regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement –

Swindon Solicitors S J Edney

2010-04-20T04:16:00.000-07:00

Mayra Cabrera's case continues to make the national news - During 2008 Arnel Cabrera's clinical negligence claim against Great Western Hospital arose from the death of his wife during childbirth in 2004. This case attracted huge media interest and we understand that S J Edney is the first law firm in legal history to obtain an unlawful killing verdict against a hospital at an Inquest.

£100.00 worth of Marks & Spencer vouchers

2010-03-30T13:35:00.000-07:00

Client Referral Scheme

If a former or an existing client recommends either a friend or a member of their family to our firm for advice about an accident or medical negligence claim and we are able to help them, as a token of our thanks we would give that client a £100.00 worth of Marks & Spencer vouchers or alternatively make a donation of this value to their nominated charity.

2010-03-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

2009

Swindon Solicitors S.J.Edney had another busy year. We continued to act for clients who have been victims of all types of accidents - including patients who received sub-standard care at hospitals or from their GP. We recovered damages in excess of £1m for our clients during 2009!

MAYRA CABRERA

Mayra’s case was in the national news again during November and December 2009. Mayra, who was only 30 at the time, suffered a heart attack when Bupivacaine, a potent epidural anaesthetic, was mistakenly attached to an intravenous drip on the 11 May 2004 shortly after she gave birth to her son, Zac.

The Hospital Trust have now been prosecuted by the HSE for a breach of Section 3 (1) of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 :-

“3.1 It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as reasonably practical, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety”

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