Clinical Negligence 2025 Virtual Conference

Introduction

Chaired by David Pilling, this virtual classroom annual conference with a panel of leading experts offers a comprehensive update as to the current hot topics in this fast-moving area.

Each session will provide a full opportunity for questions and answers.

Conference Agenda

This 5 hour online conference will cover the following:

10:00am-11:00am: Fixed Costs in Clinical Negligence Cases

Chair: David Pilling, Liverpool Civil Law Chambers

This session will provide a detailed guide to both the pre-action Fixed Costs regime, now scheduled to be implemented in October 2024, as well as the applicability of Fixed Costs in liability admitted intermediate track cases, to include:

• An analysis of the new Rules and Practice Direction
• A step by step guide to the light and standard tracks
• The various sanctions available for non-compliance
• The likely battlegrounds as to Costs

Morning Break

11:10am-12:10pm: Negligence Claims for Mesh - Which Claims Are Likely to Succeed?

Linda Millband, Thompsons Solicitors

Vaginal mesh tape has been about since the beginning of the century; however, it is currently banned from use, following a review from Baroness Cumberledge. Many women have suffered from severe injuries as a result of the use of mesh and a number have had to undergo removal surgery.

This session will cover:

• The different types of mesh tape
• What are the alternative treatments?
• What risks should the claimants have been warned about from 2000 onwards?
• What makes a successful claim and what evidence is required
• Valuation and the Judicial College Guidelines

12:10pm-1:10pm: Clinical Negligence Legal Update - Latest Key Cases

Aneurin Moloney, Gatehouse Chambers

A look at the key clinical negligence judgments and developments from the past 12 months, and a look at what is to come this year.

Cases to be presented include:

• Bilal and McCulloch - Montgomery revisited in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court
• Paul, Polmear and Purchase - the long-awaited Supreme Court decision on psychiatric injuries for secondary victims
• CNZ and CCC - 2 birth injury cases with potentially far reaching consequences

Break for lunch

2:00pm-3:00pm: The Scope of the Duty of Care: Khan v Meadows

Owain Thomas KC, 1 Crown Office Row

This session will cover:

• The origin of the case law seeking to limit the scope of the duty of care in professional negligence cases
• The application of that principle in the context of clinical negligence in Khan v Meadows
• How that principle has been reflected in more recent case law and thoughts on how it might arise in different areas of clinical negligence

Afternoon break

3:15pm-4:15pm: Material Contribution - Does It Have a Role to Play at All?

David Pilling, Liverpool Civil Law Chambers

This session will explore whether and, if so, in what circumstances causation can be proved in clinical negligence claims by reference to material contribution.

• How material contribution became relevant to clinical negligence claims
• The circumstances in which it can be relevant
• The future of material contribution in clinical negligence claims, if any?