rosemary johnson wrote:taking legal action is a good way to make money for lawyers.
Action against the optician?
What would you achieve by it??
A lot of hassle, legal bills, worry......
I am afraid I have to disagree with many of the points that are made specifically in the quote above and in this thread.
If you GENUINELY feel that you have been treated badly, and the professional involved has caused you harm or neglected you in some way, then you have every right to consider and investigate the possibility of legal action against them.
The vast majority of medical professionals provide a superb service, and they are well paid for it - rightly. They also benefit from thousands of pounds worth of training which puts them in a position to earn an excellent salary. If they are abusing that priviledge then they are as much answerable to their patients and society as anyone else might be.
I cannot and will not comment on the specifics of your potential claim. But as a general principle, my opinion is that the right for you to seek redress is yours and if you feel it is appropriate you should follow that up, as enshrined in the Access to Justice Act 1999.
As for costing you a lot of money...not true. Good Solicitors who deal in medical negligence will act for you under a Conditional Fee Agreement. This essentially and broadly means that they charge you nothing, and if they accept your case and win, the insurer or the medical professional pays their costs NOT YOU.
It is also a complete falsehood, that there are Solicitors out there taking on such claims willy-nilly. I confess an interest. I work for a Solicitors that deals in this area of the law. We reject nine out of every ten claims that comes before us....and before you ask, my firm does not have the specialist knowledge that is needed to deal with a medical negligence claim, so no I cannot help you.
So there, I have said my piece. I am not saying that you should pursue this, just that I passionately believe that you have the right to do so. If you have a genuine claim to make, any good solicitor that deals in medical negligence will offer you a free introductory discussion and if they accept you as a client it's a Conditional Fee Agreement from therein.
As for hassle....yes there is work to be done in such a claim, but that is usually an excellent method of filtering the less honest claimants from the genuinely wronged.