Medical negligence cases are uncommon, but have significant impacts on both NHS funding as well as personal and professional implications for the practitioners involved. The three tests required to prove negligence are: duty of care, breach in this duty, and resulting harm. These tests have been refined by court rulings over the last 100 years with a number of landmark cases. An important change in recent years has been rulings on informed consent, and these increase the chance of medical negligence proceedings. The majority of negligence cases are civil matters, however if deemed to be serious enough they can be pursed through the criminal courts and custodial sentences applied if proved. There have been a number of high-profile cases of doctors prosecuted in criminal courts, as well as regulatory proceedings. Medical negligence is an evolving area of legal practice, with the potential for new rulings to change the law as currently applied.
