James Thompson: It is scandalous that the law says a child’s life is worth just £13,000

ASK any parent to put a figure on the value of a child’s life and they will tell you it’s priceless. But according to the Government, it is in fact a measly £12,980 – pitiful given that a bereavement award supposedly serves as a recognition of grief and public recognition that a death was wrongful.

But there is a particularly pressing reason to dramatically increase this award. Justice for lost children and accountability depends on it.

I am talking about the compensation offered to parents of children who have died due to hospital blunders. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is currently pursuing a change to the law which will make it nearly impossible for parents to pursue justice for a child they have lost unless they are able to fund the litigation themselves.

The law setting out the criteria for claiming a bereavement damages award is contained in the Fatal Accidents Act 1976. The amount, set by the Government, is currently fixed at £12,980. In a case involving the loss of a spouse for example, other considerations are usually taken into account such as loss of earnings and services which raises the overall compensation. But this is not the case for children.

Obviously there is a strong emotional argument for increasing the award, but there is an urgent, practical need too. It is so that parents of infants killed by negligence continue to be able to access justice, to seek answers and force lessons to be learnt when grave mistakes are made.

It simply cannot be right that a government department can be responsible for a death, but then avoid being held accountable because that same government has made it impossible for families to pursue legal action.

Mr Hunt is proposing new legislation which will mean that if a hospital refuses to accept responsibility for the part it played in a child’s death, forcing parents to take the hospital to court to get justice, the costs of the case which the family will be able to recover if they win will be capped. This proposed cap will make it impossible to get the case started at all, as there will simply be no money to pay for the necessary work.

I can say for certain that money is never, ever the motivation for bereaved families who have lost children. They want answers and acceptance of responsibility from the doctors who treated their son or daughter. Sadly, if a hospital will not accept responsibility for a child’s death, then the only option is to launch a civil claim.

Mr Hunt knows that if a Hospital Trust decides to deny lability and fight a family’s case all the way to trial, the legal costs could easily top £200,000 – much of which is spent on expert reports and witnesses. If costs are capped at say 50 per cent of the final award, parents who are seeking justice for the loss of a child would only be able to pay their lawyers £6,490 for several months and even years of work. That’s a shortfall of £193,510. Even with the best of will, no lawyer will be able to operate within that framework.

Perhaps the reason I am so angry about these proposals is because they are brought forward by the same Health Secretary who set up the independent Morecambe Bay inquiry which exposed failings that led to the deaths of one mother and 11 babies in a maternity unit at a Cumbrian Hospital. Hypocrisy? Surely.

I am not trying to scaremonger. This is happening right now and the Government is counting on the public to let it happen; clouded by a propaganda machine in overdrive. If this comes to pass, parents will realise too late that they are alone and cannot get legal representation.

A recent survey endorsed by patient charity Action Against Medical Accidents graphically illustrates the point. It found that should a cap on legal fees be introduced, 83 per cent of specialist medical negligence lawyers are likely to opt against representing families with claims worth less than £25,000 in damages.

It is vital that failings in medical care are highlighted and families are a remarkable force when it comes to seeking justice for their loved ones. But soon, grieving parents may have to take on the NHS on their own, with only the threat of a disgraceful amount of money as ammunition. Because they will be up against expert NHS defence solicitors with bigger budgets and their army of experts, parents will run out of time, money and patience and either give up or lose their case on a technicality because they are not specialist lawyers.

Without accountability, mistakes will continue to happen and more children will die. The statutory amount fixed for bereavement damages must be increased right away to at least £100,000. If not, families of children killed by negligent care will be forever denied justice.

I can only urge parents to stand up to this proposed change publicly and vocally. I know I will.

James Thompson is a clinical negligence solicitor for Leeds-based Simpson Millar.