§ CASE LIBRARY

Real medical negligence cases,
every one linked to the judgment.

Published judgments of the courts of England and Wales, summarised in plain English: what went wrong, what the court decided, and the sum where the judgment states it. We include the claims that failed as well as the ones that succeeded, because they show what you have to prove.

Judgments

152

With the sum stated

33

Claimant succeeded

87

Claim failed

59

G
ClaimGavel Assistant
● Online · medical negligence · free & confidential
FREE
TELL US WHAT HAPPENED — TYPE HERE

Start typing — your likely claim, value and time limit appear here.

Describe what happened (a sentence or two) to begin.

Free · confidential · not legal adviceEngland

§ WAYS IN

Sums stated (33)£1M and above (13)Claims that failed (59)Fault admitted (42)Court approvals (10)Periodical payments (30)Delayed diagnosis (95)Brain injury (32)Consent claims (13)Leading cases (6)Infection and sepsis (31)Surgery claims (64)Claims for children (39)Fatal claims (22)
AllSum statedClaimant succeededClaim failed
Every claim typeClinical Negligence (10)Surgical Errors (12)Cerebral Palsy (13)Birth Injuries (1)Misdiagnosis & Delayed Diagnosis (7)Erb's Palsy (1)GP Negligence (16)Maternal Birth Injury (4)Stillbirth & Neonatal Death (2)Neonatal Injury (5)Sepsis Negligence (5)Cauda Equina Syndrome (7)DVT & Blood Clot (2)A&E Negligence (16)Cancer Misdiagnosis & Delayed Diagnosis (6)Orthopaedic Negligence (4)Vascular Negligence (6)Cardiac Negligence (6)Brain & Spinal Surgery Negligence (13)Urology & Catheter Injury (5)Anaesthetic Negligence (2)Fatal Medical Negligence (9)
Claim failed

Dalton v Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

[2019] EWHC 832 (QB)·2019·Liability decided at trial

A 38-year-old woman with a hard breast lump had a mammogram and ultrasound that looked benign and was discharged without a biopsy; cancer was found in 2013. Yip J accepted that a responsible body of breast surgeons would not have biopsied on those findings.

Triple assessment does not always require a biopsy where imaging is reassuring. A later cancer diagnosis does not by itself prove the earlier clinic decision was negligent.

Contains information licensed under the Open Justice - Licence v2.0. Judgments from Find Case Law, The National Archives. Summaries are ours; amounts only where printed in the judgment.

§ HOW TO READ THESE

Most claims never reach a judgment. They settle privately, and settlement sums are confidential. Judgments surface when liability is disputed, when damages are fought over, or when a court must approve a settlement for a child or someone who lacks capacity. That is why approvals and damages trials are where the public figures come from.

Amounts are only what the judgment prints. Where a case shows a lump sum plus periodical payments, the yearly payments continue for life and can be worth far more than the lump sum. Where no figure is shown, the court decided fault but the money was settled or assessed elsewhere.

Plain-English guides built on these cases →

This guide is general information about the law in England and Wales, not legal advice about your case. ClaimGavel is run by Costart Projects Ltd on behalf of Tomlin & Partners, a specialist medical negligence firm regulated by the SRA. The free assessment on this page is an AI overview to show you roughly where you stand; a solicitor confirms the position in a free, no-obligation conversation.