Medical Negligence Lawyer Liverpool

Not every bad medical outcome is negligence. Surgery has risks. Treatments don't always work. That's medicine.

But when a doctor, surgeon, nurse, or hospital fails to provide the level of care you'd reasonably expect, and that failure directly causes you harm, that's medical negligence.

Four things need to be true for a valid claim:

1. Your doctor owed you a duty of care (they almost always do, from the moment they treat you)
2. They fell below the expected standard by doing something wrong or failing to act
3. That failure directly caused your injury (not just a known risk of treatment)
4. You suffered real harm like physical injury, psychological damage, or financial loss

Here's what that looks like in practice. A surgeon operates on the wrong knee. A GP dismisses chest pain as heartburn without ordering an ECG. A doctor prescribes medication you're allergic to, despite it being in your records. An emergency department sends you home with a broken neck because they didn't order imaging.

The key question is always: would a competent doctor in the same situation have done things differently? If the answer is yes, and their failure hurt you, you likely have a claim.

We assess these cases every day. If you're unsure whether what happened to you crosses the line from bad luck to negligence, that's exactly what our free consultation is for.

Compensation varies enormously depending on how badly you've been hurt and how it's affected your life. Here are realistic ranges based on what we see in NSW:

• Minor injuries (full recovery expected): $20,000 to $100,000
• Moderate injuries (lasting impact, some ongoing treatment): $100,000 to $500,000
• Serious injuries (surgical errors causing paralysis or organ failure): $500,000 to $3 million
• Delayed cancer diagnosis (allowing progression to later stages): $1 million to $5 million
• Catastrophic birth injuries (cerebral palsy, lifetime care needs): $3 million to $8 million+

These are guides, not guarantees. Every case is different. The main factors that drive the number:

Your age and career. A misdiagnosis that permanently disables a 30-year-old professional represents decades of lost earnings. The same injury to a retiree involves less economic loss, but similar pain and suffering.

How much care you'll need. Catastrophic injuries need lifelong nursing, home modifications, mobility equipment, and therapy. These costs push compensation into the millions.

Pain and suffering. The law recognises that injuries cause more than financial loss. Physical pain, anxiety, depression, damaged relationships, and lost enjoyment of life all factor in.

Medical costs. Everything from past hospital bills to future treatment, rehabilitation, and medication.

We'll give you an honest assessment of what your claim is likely worth during your free consultation. We don't inflate expectations.

No Win No Fee means exactly what it says: if we don't win your case, you don't pay us. It's that straightforward.

Here's how it works in practice:

1. You pay nothing upfront. We cover all costs while your claim is being pursued, including our legal fees, expert medical reports, court filing fees, and investigation expenses.

1. If your claim is unsuccessful, you owe us nothing. We absorb every cost. This means we're only taking on cases we genuinely believe will succeed.

1. If your claim succeeds, our fee is a percentage of your compensation. Typically between 25% and 33%, depending on the complexity of your case. This is agreed upfront before we start, so there are no surprises.

1. We arrange insurance to protect you against the other side's legal costs if the claim doesn't succeed. This premium is usually covered from your compensation if you win.

Why this matters for medical negligence specifically:

Medical negligence claims are expensive to run. Expert reports from surgeons, physicians, and other specialists can cost thousands. Court proceedings add more. Without No Win No Fee, many people with legitimate claims simply couldn't afford to pursue them.

What it means for you:

• Access to the same legal firepower as the hospital's insurance company
• Zero financial risk
• Our interests are completely aligned with yours. We only get paid when you do.

Call us on 1300 011 149 for a free consultation. We'll tell you honestly whether your case has merit and explain exactly how the fee arrangement works for your situation.

In NSW, you generally have three years to start legal proceedings. Miss that window and you'll likely lose your right to claim, no matter how strong your case is.

But the clock doesn't always start when the treatment happened. Sometimes negligence isn't obvious straight away. If a surgeon left a swab inside you during an operation, you might not know for months or even years. In those cases, the three years starts from when you discovered (or should have reasonably discovered) both the injury and its link to negligence.

There are some exceptions:

• Children: The three-year clock doesn't start until they turn 18
• People with a disability: Special rules may apply if someone lacks legal capacity
• Hidden injuries: If the negligence genuinely couldn't have been found within three years, an extension may be possible

One important thing to understand: even though there's a deadline to file, we often need to wait for your injuries to stabilise before settling a claim. That usually takes around 12 months. This is why getting legal advice early matters so much. It gives us time to build your case properly while protecting your right to claim.

If you think something went wrong with your medical care, don't wait. The sooner we can review your situation, the more options you'll have.

This is one of the first questions people ask, and the honest answer is: you don't have to prove it yourself. That's our job, and it's built on expert medical evidence.

Here's how it works. We get an independent specialist (a surgeon, physician, or other expert in the relevant field) to review what happened to you. They look at your medical records and answer three questions:

1. What should a competent doctor have done in your situation?
2. Did your treating doctor fall short of that standard?
3. Did that failure directly cause your injury?

Their opinion carries serious weight in court. The defendant's lawyers will hire their own expert to defend the treatment, and the judge weighs both sides.

What we gather to build your case:

• Your full medical records from every doctor, hospital, and specialist involved
• Independent expert reports from specialists in the relevant field
• Evidence of how the injury has affected your life including medical costs, lost income, and ongoing treatment

You don't need to come to us with proof already in hand. We handle the record requests, expert appointments, and evidence gathering. What we need from you is your account of what happened, when it happened, and how it's affected you. We take it from there.

The short version: don't worry about gathering everything yourself. We handle the formal record requests and know exactly what to ask for. But here's what matters and why.

Medical records are the foundation. They tell us what happened, when, and what decisions were made. We request:

• Clinical notes and progress notes from every treating doctor and hospital.
• Test results (blood work, scans, pathology).
• Surgical reports and anaesthetic records if you had a procedure.
• Nursing notes and medication records.
• Discharge summaries.
• Referral letters between doctors.
• Consent forms and information sheets you were given before treatment.

Records from your treatment after the negligence are just as important. They show the impact. What new treatment did you need? What ongoing care do you require? How has your health changed?

Financial records help us calculate your damages:

• Medical bills and receipts, both past and ongoing.
• Payslips or tax returns showing lost income.
• Receipts for medication, therapy, and rehabilitation.
• Quotes for any equipment or home modifications you need.

What you can do right now:

• Write down your account of what happened while it's fresh. Include dates, who you saw, and what they said.
• Keep all medical receipts and invoices.
• Note how the injury has affected your daily life, work, and relationships.
• Don't contact the doctor or hospital about your concerns. Let us handle that.

Hospitals typically take about 30 days to provide records. GP records are usually faster. We manage the whole process.

Yes, but not every wrong or late diagnosis is negligence. Doctors aren't expected to get it right every time, especially when symptoms are vague or overlap with other conditions.

The real question is: would a competent doctor in the same situation have caught it sooner or got it right?

A few examples to show the difference:

Likely negligence: You go to your GP with a persistent cough and unexplained weight loss. They prescribe antibiotics and don't order a chest X-ray. Two months later, another doctor finds lung cancer that's now spread. A reasonable GP would have investigated earlier.

Probably not negligence: You see your GP with vague stomach discomfort. They run standard blood tests, which come back normal. Six months later, you're diagnosed with a rare bowel condition. The initial symptoms weren't specific enough to point to it.

The cases that matter most are the ones where timing changes everything: cancer, stroke, heart disease, and serious infections. In these conditions, weeks or months of delay can mean the difference between a treatable situation and a life-threatening one.

To succeed, we need to show two things: that a competent doctor would have acted sooner, and that the delay made your outcome worse. We work with specialists who can analyse the timeline and determine exactly where things went wrong.

Coming out of treatment worse than you went in is distressing, but it's not automatically negligence. Every surgery carries risks, and when you consent to a procedure, you're accepting that some complications can happen even when everything is done correctly.

The question is whether what happened falls into "known risk of proper treatment" or "something went wrong that shouldn't have."

Situations that may be negligence:

• The surgeon used poor technique, causing damage that a competent surgeon would have avoided.
• Your doctor didn't tell you about significant risks before you agreed to the procedure. You wouldn't have gone ahead if they had.
• The wrong procedure was performed. This includes wrong site, wrong implant, or unnecessary surgery.
• Post-operative care was inadequate. Warning signs were missed, complications weren't treated, or you were discharged too early.

Situations that usually aren't negligence:

• Infection after surgery, when proper sterile technique was used and you were warned this was a risk.
• Nerve damage during a procedure where nerve proximity was a known and disclosed risk.
• Scarring or slow healing consistent with the type of surgery.

The distinction comes down to this: did the doctor perform the treatment competently and warn you about the risks? If they did, a complication doesn't equal negligence. If they didn't, it might.

We can review your surgical records and have an independent expert assess whether the treatment met the expected standard.

Yes. When healthcare providers fail to properly monitor your baby during labour, respond too slowly to distress, or handle delivery negligently, you have a claim.

Birth injury cases are among the most serious we handle. The consequences can last a lifetime. Cerebral palsy. Brain damage. Nerve injuries that paralyse an arm. Developmental conditions that affect your child forever.

Common failures we see:

• Fetal heart rate monitoring showed distress, but staff didn't act quickly enough.
• An emergency caesarean was needed but delayed. The baby went too long without enough oxygen.
• Forceps or vacuum delivery was done with excessive force, injuring the baby's nerves or skull.
• A high-risk pregnancy was managed in a facility without the right emergency capability.
• Maternal complications like pre-eclampsia or infection weren't identified or managed properly.

What makes these cases challenging is that some birth injuries happen despite proper care. Not every difficult delivery involves negligence. We work with obstetric experts who review the monitoring records, delivery notes, and clinical decisions. They pinpoint exactly where care fell short.

What makes these cases different is the scale of compensation. A child with cerebral palsy needs care, therapy, equipment, and support for their entire life. Awards typically range from $3 million to $8 million or more.

If your child was injured during birth and you believe something went wrong, we can review the delivery records and give you an honest assessment.

You don't need to know exactly who made the mistake. Hospitals are responsible for the care they provide as an institution, not just the actions of individual doctors.

Hospitals can be liable in two ways:

Through their staff: If a nurse, doctor, or other employee causes harm while doing their job, the hospital is legally responsible. You don't need to identify the specific person or prove they were individually negligent.

Through their own failures: Hospitals have duties they can't hand off to anyone else. These include:

• Keeping enough trained staff on shift to handle patient numbers safely.
• Maintaining equipment so monitoring devices and surgical tools work properly.
• Having safe systems for giving medication, handing over between shifts, and controlling infection.
• Providing proper post-operative monitoring and care.

When these systems break down, the hospital itself is liable. Some real examples:

• An emergency department runs short-staffed on a busy night. A patient with a heart attack waits too long and suffers permanent damage.
• A hospital's medication system is poorly designed. A nurse gives the wrong drug to the wrong patient.
• Post-surgery, nursing staff ignore a patient's complaints of increasing pain. An infection progresses to sepsis before anyone escalates it to a doctor.

A practical advantage of hospital claims: public hospitals like Liverpool Hospital and Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital carry substantial insurance. This means compensation is more certain than pursuing an individual doctor with limited personal assets.

We investigate both angles in every case, identifying whether individual clinicians, the hospital, or both are responsible.

Yes. Medication errors are a common form of medical negligence, and they can happen at every stage: when the doctor prescribes, when the pharmacist dispenses, or when a nurse administers the medication.

Types of errors we see:

• Wrong medication. Your doctor prescribes a drug that's inappropriate for your condition.
• Wrong dose. The prescribed amount is too high (causing toxicity) or too low (failing to treat).
• Dangerous interactions. Your doctor prescribes something that reacts badly with medication you're already taking. They should have checked.
• Ignoring allergies. You're given a drug you're allergic to, despite the allergy being in your records.
• No monitoring. Some medications like blood thinners need regular blood tests. If nobody orders the tests and you develop complications, that's negligence.
• Pharmacy error. The pharmacist gives you the wrong drug or wrong strength.
• Administration error. A nurse gives medication to the wrong patient, by the wrong method, or at the wrong dose.

What makes it negligence is that the person responsible should have known better. Doctors are expected to check your allergy history and understand drug interactions. Nurses must verify the patient, medication, dose, and route before giving anything. Pharmacists must check prescriptions against known interactions.

Real examples:

• A patient with a documented penicillin allergy is prescribed penicillin. They go into anaphylactic shock.
• A patient on blood thinners receives double the intended dose. They suffer a major bleed.
• A patient's kidney function isn't monitored while on a drug that requires it. The drug accumulates and causes organ damage.

This is one of the biggest misconceptions in medical negligence. Many people assume that signing a consent form means they've signed away their right to claim. That's not how it works.

When you sign a consent form, you're agreeing to:

• The specific procedure being performed
• The known risks of that procedure being done properly
• A competent doctor carrying it out

You are not agreeing to:

• Negligent technique (a surgeon making avoidable errors)
• A different procedure to the one you consented to
• Risks that nobody told you about

That last point is critical. Doctors have a legal obligation to tell you about significant risks before you agree to treatment. A generic consent form listing possible complications isn't enough. The doctor needs to have actually discussed the material risks with you, meaning the risks that a reasonable person in your position would want to know about before deciding.

If your doctor didn't warn you about a significant risk, that risk then occurred, and you wouldn't have gone ahead had you known, you may have a claim even if the procedure itself was performed competently.

Some practical examples:

• You consent to knee surgery. The surgeon performs it negligently, damaging a nerve. The consent form doesn't protect the surgeon.
• You consent to one procedure. The surgeon performs a different one. The form only covers what you agreed to.
• You weren't told about a 5% risk of permanent numbness. Numbness occurs. If you would have declined the surgery had you known, you have a claim.

Yes. GPs are the gatekeepers of Australia's healthcare system. Part of their job is knowing when a condition is beyond their expertise and referring you to the right specialist. When they don't, and you're harmed by the delay, that's negligence.

The test is straightforward: would a competent GP in the same situation have referred you?

Scenarios where GPs should refer but sometimes don't:

• You present with a persistent cough, unexplained weight loss, or blood in your stool. A competent GP would investigate cancer and refer urgently. A delay of weeks or months can allow a treatable cancer to become terminal.
• You describe chest pain and have risk factors for heart disease. Instead of referring to a cardiologist, your GP tells you it's probably stress. You later have a heart attack.
• You have a significant knee injury. Your GP assumes it'll heal on its own instead of sending you to an orthopaedic surgeon. The delay causes permanent damage.
• You're struggling with severe depression that isn't responding to medication. A referral to a psychiatrist is overdue.

GPs aren't expected to have specialist knowledge. That's the whole point of referring. But they are expected to recognise when something is outside their competence and act quickly. Ignoring red flags, dismissing concerning symptoms, or taking a "wait and see" approach when the condition is time-sensitive can all be grounds for a claim.

What we need to prove is that a timely referral would have led to an earlier diagnosis, better treatment, and a better outcome for you. We work with GP experts and the relevant specialists to establish that timeline.

Yes. Medical negligence doesn't just cause physical harm. Many of our clients deal with anxiety, depression, PTSD, and other psychological conditions as a direct result of what happened to them.

These injuries are real, they're recognised by the courts, and they're compensable.

What qualifies:

You need a diagnosed psychological condition. Being upset or angry is understandable, but it's not enough for a legal claim on its own. A psychiatrist or psychologist needs to formally diagnose a condition like:

• PTSD. Nightmares, flashbacks, hypervigilance, or avoidance of medical settings after a traumatic experience.
• Depression or anxiety. Persistent low mood, loss of interest in life, or constant worry about your health after negligent treatment.
• Adjustment disorder. Significant emotional distress after learning your diagnosis was delayed or your treatment was botched.

What we need to prove:

1. You have a clinically recognised condition, diagnosed by a mental health professional.
2. The negligence caused it. This is more straightforward when there's also physical injury.
3. The psychological harm was a foreseeable result of what happened.

How it affects compensation:

Psychological injury damages are part of your overall claim. Severe PTSD or ongoing depression can significantly increase your total compensation. This is especially true when you need long-term therapy or medication, or when it's affecting your ability to work.

If you're struggling emotionally after a medical experience that went wrong, that's not weakness. It's a legitimate injury, and the law treats it as such.

Never events are medical errors so serious and so preventable that they should never happen if proper safety procedures are followed. The name says it all.

The main never events:

• Wrong-site surgery. Operating on the wrong side, wrong level, or wrong body part entirely.
• Retained surgical items. Swabs, instruments, or other objects left inside a patient after surgery. Counting procedures exist specifically to prevent this.
• Wrong-patient surgery. Performing a procedure meant for someone else.
• Wrong implant or device. Installing the wrong prosthetic joint, implant, or medical device.
• Medication given despite documented allergy. Giving a drug to a patient whose allergy is clearly recorded.

Why these cases are strong:

Never events are almost indefensible. The breach of care is obvious. A retained surgical swab inside a patient's abdomen speaks for itself, and the law recognises that principle (it's called res ipsa loquitur). Courts don't need extensive debate about whether the standard of care was met. It clearly wasn't.

The hospital is almost always liable alongside the individual clinician, because never events point to system-level failures: surgical checklists not followed, patient identification protocols ignored, instrument counts not completed.

Defendants rarely win these cases. Their best arguments are usually that the error was caught and fixed before it caused lasting harm, or that subsequent treatment limited the damage.

If something happened to you that clearly should never have occurred, your case is likely strong. We can confirm quickly.