Tom Goodhead secures £150,000 settlement of Clinical Negligence claim

Tom Goodhead has achieved approval of a settlement of £150,000 in damages on behalf of the family of ‘O’ who died in 2011 at the age of 43. ‘O’ died following mismanagement of a subarachnoid haemorrhage leading to death. Liability was admitted by the King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust but quantum remained in dispute.

Following admission of liability, Tom was instructed to represent the family at mediation. The mediation itself was an unusual feature of the case and lasted for 10 hours. Despite some progress towards settlement being achieved at mediation, Tom was unable to advise the family to accept the settlement sum offered by the NHSLA.

Tom advised further investigations be undertaken as to the financial and services dependency claims. A forensic accountant’s report was obtained and served on the NHSLA.

Tom and his instructing solicitors relied upon the first instance judgment in the case of Knauer v MOJ [2014] EWHC 2553 to support the levels of dependency claimed.

Settlement of £150,000 was achieved by way of acceptance of a Part 36 Offer just prior to the service of proceedings.

The settlement represented a 600% increase on the sum offered in settlement of the case prior to Tom’s involvement.

Tom was instructed by Jodie Miller of Slater and Gordon LLP, Manchester.