Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012

Clinical negligence and severely disabled infants E+W

23 (1) Civil legal services provided in relation to a claim for damages in respect of clinical negligence which caused a neurological injury to an individual (“V”) as a result of which V is severely disabled, but only where the first and second conditions are met. E+W

(2) The first condition is that the clinical negligence occurred—

(a) while V was in his or her mother's womb, or

(b) during or after V's birth but before the end of the following period—

(i) if V was born before the beginning of the 37th week of pregnancy, the period of 8 weeks beginning with the first day of what would have been that week;

(ii) if V was born during or after the 37th week of pregnancy, the period of 8 weeks beginning with the day of V's birth.

(3) The second condition is that—

(a) the services are provided to V, or

(b) V has died and the services are provided to V's personal representative.

General exclusions

(4) Sub-paragraph (1) is subject to—

(a) the exclusions in Part 2 of this Schedule, with the exception of paragraphs 1, 2, 3 and 8 of that Part, and

(b) the exclusion in Part 3 of this Schedule.

Definitions

(5) In this paragraph—

• “birth” means the moment when an individual first has a life separate from his or her mother and references to an individual being born are to be interpreted accordingly;

• “clinical negligence” means breach of a duty of care or trespass to the person committed in the course of the provision of clinical or medical services (including dental or nursing services);

• “disabled” means physically or mentally disabled;

• “personal representative”, in relation to an individual who has died, means—

  (a)

  a person responsible for administering the individual's estate under the law of England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, or

  (b)

  a person who, under the law of another country or territory, has functions equivalent to those of administering the individual's estate.