'Ambulance-chasing' lawyers make £3million every week out of NHS blunders

Lawyers are pocketing £1 in every £2 paid out to victims of NHS blunders.

Legal firms are bringing in a total of more than £3million every week as the compensation culture booms.

Experts say increasing numbers of cases are being taken to court by 'no-win, no-fee' solicitors, who even tout for business in A&E waiting rooms.

If they win, these 'ambulance chasing' lawyers ask the court for more in costs than would be paid in legal aid cases. This is to cover their extra risk.

Last year, a total of £165million went on legal fees in medical negligence cases, for both defence and prosecution lawyers. This was 25 per cent up on 2006/07.

The compensation to injured patients rose by a lower amount, 18 per cent, to £382million, according to the annual report of the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA).

On top of the £547million paid out to victims and lawyers for medical negligence claims, a further £114million went on other claims not directly linked to doctors' mistakes, such as slipping on a hospital carpet.

Peter Walsh, chief executive of Action Against Medical Accidents, said: 'The amount of money taken up in legal costs rather than the compensation injured patients need and deserve is excessive.

'The state is shooting itself in the foot by the whittling down of legal aid which is now only available to the very poorest in society. People are forced to litigate using "no-win, no-fee" agreements which are much more costly for the NHS to settle.

'We need a bolstering of legal aid and a proper scheme to compensate patients injured by negligence without having to go to court.'

Matthew Elliott of the TaxPayers' Alliance said: 'It's a disgrace that so much of our money is going to ambulance-chasing lawyers. There is a big difference between providing legal advice and excessive billing that is frankly greedy.'

The NHSLA provides payouts to people injured by health service treatment. All hospital, ambulance and primary care trusts pay premiums to the organisation for the collective cover it provides.

In total, around 6,000 cases against the NHS go to court every year.

The NHSLA said the legal costs payable to victims' lawyers were typically around double the cost of the lawyers the health service instructs to defend the cases.

A spokesman said: 'We continue to seek to have claimants' costs capped where this is appropriate and the authority remains concerned about the high level of costs incurred in relation to clinical negligence cases on both sides.'