United Kingdom Clinical Negligence Market Report 2024 - ResearchAndMarkets.com

The "UK Clinical Negligence Market Report 2024" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The seventh edition of an annual market report which provides a review of the clinical negligence legal market, looking at the legislative background, recent market developments and drivers, market structure, market size and trends with historical volume and value data, the key players and future market developments.

Key findings from the seventh annual edition of the UK Clinical Negligence Market Report:

• In 2023/24, it is estimated that law firms earned revenue of just under £1.6 billion from clinical negligence (CN) cases, an increase of 7.6% over the previous year.
• In 2023/24, CN case numbers (registered at the Compensation Recovery Unit) increased by 9.6% compared to the previous year following an increase of over 7% in 2022/23. Cases settled increased marginally by 0.5%.
• For the third year running, damages paid increased and passed the £2 billion mark (£2,106.9 billion). Claimant legal fees reached £545.3m from £490.9m in the previous year and defendant legal fees were £169m increasing from £158.8m in 2022/23.
• As in the previous year, leading claimant law firms are Irwin Mitchell and Fletchers and, in 2023/24, these two firms increased their share of all NHS CN claims settled to a combined 17% from 15% in the previous year.
• We expect some slowdown in NHS claims settled in the coming year mainly because there was a drop in the number of claims registered two years ago: many of these will be complex claims that take longer to resolve.
• Alongside claims against the NHS, growth in the market is likely to come from other claims sectors such as care/nursing homes, equipment failures, and claims against unregulated practitioners such as some undertaking cosmetic surgery and non-intrusive procedures.

The above uncertainty makes it difficult to assess the short term outlook for the market. The other major uncertainty relates to whether the FRC regime for low value CN claims up to and including £25,000 is ever going to happen. If FRCs come into play, some law firms are likely to decide that it is not worthwhile financially to take on these lower value claims. Even without the arrival of FRCs for CN claims, the number of claimant law firms is decreasing as M&A activity continues and other firms leave the sector.

These trends are likely to continue as competition for a relatively small number of cases intensifies and as larger players cope better with often long delays before any compensation payments are decided with the resultant impact on short and medium-term cashflow.

Key Topics Covered:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• Introduction
• Total legal revenue of almost £1.6 million
• Case numbers registered increase along with cases settled
• NHS spending increases
• Damages and litigation
• The future

INTRODUCTION

• Overview
• Two types of damage payments
• Lump sum payment and the PIDR
• Provisions

MARKET STRUCTURE

• Four main market participants
• Clinical negligence indemnity/insurance cover

MARKET DEVELOPMENTS AND DRIVERS

• Review of personal injury discount rate in England and Wales started in 2024
• PIDR decisions in Scotland and Northern Ireland
• Fixed recoverable costs (FRCs) applied from 1st October 2023
• FRCs for low value CN cases - delayed or dropped?
• NHS Resolution announces new Clinical Negligence Claims Agreement 2024
• Darzi Report - CN payments take too much of NHS budget
• Obstetrics and emergency medicine lead claim numbers in last two years
• Average damages paid increasing
• Year-on-year decrease in cases reaching court
• Damages Claims service issued over 116,000 claims since launch in 2021
• Mediation numbers pass the 2,000 mark since service launched in 2016

THE KEY PLAYERS

• M&A activity
• Main claimant legal advisers
• Main defendant legal advisers
• Selected Law Firm Profiles
• Bevan Brittan
• Bolt Burdon Kemp
• Browne Jacobson
• Capsticks
• Clyde & Co
• DAC Beachcroft
• DWF
• Enable Law
• Fieldfisher
• Fletchers
• Gadsby Wicks
• Hempsons
• Hill Dickinson
• Irwin Mitchell
• JMW Solicitors
• Kennedys Law
• Leigh Day
• Penningtons Manches Cooper
• Simpson Millar
• Slater & Gordon UK
• Stewarts Law
• Switalskis Solicitors
• Thompsons
• Weightmans
• NHS Resolution contracted mediators

MARKET SIZE AND TRENDS

• Volume of cases registered and settled with the CRU increase
• NHS Resolution claims closed increase marginally but claims registered decline
• Damages paid and legal costs increase for third year running
• NHS Scotland and Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme (CNORIS)
• Medical Protection Society (MPS)
• Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland (MDDUS)
• Medical Defence Union (MDU)
• Medical Defence Shield (MDS)
• Medical Defence Society
• Pharmacists Defence Association
• Other medical malpractice insurance and indemnity providers
• Clinical negligence legal revenue increases by 7.6%

THE FUTURE

ASSOCIATIONS

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