It is often said that the only winners in personal injury claims are the lawyers.

In medical negligence claims, plaintiffs (aka the patients) are invariably extremely distressed by the situation, while the defendants (aka the medical practitioners) are just very distressed.

And one of these two parties will end up having to pay their own and the other side’s legal fees. Not a nice prospect for anyone. On the other hand, both teams of lawyers are secure in the knowledge they will be paid.

While we don’t begrudge the lawyers their fair due, their fees sometimes seem disproportionate to the actual worth of the alleged injury.