Medicolegal
medicolegal@nerveinjury.co.uk
08451630901
For Lawyers
Starting in 2013, and having now been instructed in excess of 500 cases encompassing personal injury and medical negligence. Tom sees 2 new medicolegal cases for opinion per week with a ratio of 70:30 between claimant and defence instruction. He instructions via a paper free practice and has a turn around of 6-8 weeks from receiving instruction to completed reports (with video and static image evidence).
Tom has a wealth of experience in court appearances. Having appeared (both as a witness to fact and an expert witness) in personal injury, medical negligence, criminal and family courts. In all court appearances the side calling Mr Quick as an expert were successful. Senior Counsel Liam Reidy in Dublin comment that in under cross examination Tom was “brilliant and remained composed”.
A large percentage of Tom’s reports concern both the condition and prognosis and the likely causation of cases of Obstetric (Erb’s) Palsy. In commenting on causation Tom restricts his comments to the pathophysiology of nerve injury not straying into the area of the obstetric expert but offering supportive evidence to that of the midwife or obstetrician.
Tom has attended training at Irwin Mitchell’s ‘Becoming a Medico-Legal Expert’ Spring Series 2014 and attended the Expert Witness Institute Conference 2015. Tom was elected as a member of the Expert Witness Institute in 2015. Tom has lectured widely for lawyers and barristers and other medical experts on the subjects of nerve injury, brachial plexus injury, nerve injury in catastrophic injury and Birth related Brachial plexus injury. Tom is part of the commitee of the Peterhouse Medicolegal conference. (http://www.medicolegalpain.com/why-attend.html) and has provided numerous online talks (http://nerveinjury.outworkstudio.com/medicolegal-videos/)
Senior Counsel Liam Reidy in Dublin comment that in under cross examination Tom was “brilliant and remained composed”.
For Patients/Claimants
There are many times in any job where things go wrong. The problem with medicine and surgery is that when things go wrong the patient can suffer physical harm. As in any area of life errors can be mistakes or accidents, or due to someone doing something wrong or failing to take the correct action. It is this distinction that the court has to decide. if for example you have a poor outcome from surgery is it because someone took a shortcut or made the wrong decision or was it just one of those things, no one’s fault?
The medical expert in a case like this is asked by the lawyers to look through all the evidence and prepare a report for the judge. This is to explain what happened and to say what the outcome will most probably be, often to offer an opinion on if someone was to blame.
For the claimant the important thing to remember is if you are coming to me as a medical expert witness then we do not share a doctor patient relationship. If I am your surgeon I try to do everything I can to improve your condition ; if I am reporting my opinion on your case my responsibility is to give the court the most accurate report on the events and this may not be in the best interests of your condition or our case, I will be completely independent. It does not matter if it is your lawyers or the other side’s lawyers that ask me for the report.
Fees
Medicolegal work is interesting and time-consuming but is outside of my NHS workload. Thus I charge for this work. My fees are transparent and structured, I will provide any lawyer acting on your behalf with this information. I provide specialist opinion on cases requiring specific nerve injury expertise and do not accept work that is not firmly within this specialist field.
If you are attending for a medicolegal examination please expect the consultation to last between one and two hours. I will take a full history and examine you fully. You will be free to bring family members, friends or any other person you wish with you to the consultation. Please wear clothing that makes the examination comfortable for you. Confirm your appointment prior to attending. Please be aware there is a fee for cancellation.
I act in medicolegal work as an independent medical expert to arrive at my best opinion as to the truth as a matter of fact. I am completely neutral in my opinion and any report I produce about a case is for the court as expert testimony not as an argument for either of the team of lawyers.
