§ 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

44

With the sum stated

13

Claimant succeeded

26

Claim failed

16

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AllSum statedClaimant succeededClaim failed
Every claim typeClinical Negligence (1)Surgical Errors (3)Cerebral Palsy (8)Birth Injuries (1)Misdiagnosis & Delayed Diagnosis (1)Erb's Palsy (1)GP Negligence (4)Maternal Birth Injury (2)Stillbirth & Neonatal Death (1)Neonatal Injury (1)Sepsis Negligence (3)Cauda Equina Syndrome (2)DVT & Blood Clot (1)A&E Negligence (3)Cancer Misdiagnosis & Delayed Diagnosis (1)Orthopaedic Negligence (2)Vascular Negligence (1)Cardiac Negligence (1)Brain & Spinal Surgery Negligence (1)Anaesthetic Negligence (2)Fatal Medical Negligence (4)
Claim failed

Rebecca Hepworth v Dr Amanda Coates

[2025] EWHC 1907 (KB)·2025·Liability decided at trial

A 27-year-old flight attendant saw her GP with severe back and leg pain, having mentioned perianal numbness in a message two days earlier; she had emergency surgery for cauda equina syndrome four days after the consultation. The judge accepted that the GP asked the right red-flag questions and that the patient answered no, so there was no breach of duty.

In cauda equina cases the court looks closely at what safety-netting questions the GP actually asked and what the patient answered on the day. Contemporaneous notes and messages matter greatly for both sides.

Claim failed

Karen Spellman v Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust

[2024] EWHC 2011 (KB)·2024·Liability decided at trial

Ms Spellman alleged a hospital radiologist missed cauda equina compression on an MRI scan taken the day after her fall, delaying diagnosis until private surgery six days later. Damages had been agreed at £300,000 if she won, but the judge found the scan showed only mild stenosis with no compression to be found, so the claim failed.

Parties sometimes agree the damages figure in advance and fight only liability, so a claimant who loses on breach of duty recovers nothing. Expert evidence on what the scan actually showed was decisive.

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.