Karen Walsh: Negotiate before contemplating a veterinary negligence case
Generally farmers understand the fickle nature of farm animals which quite often leads to unforeseen circumstances.
This is important to note before discussing whether a vet should be held liable for a professional negligence claim, or indeed whether one should bring a claim against a vet at all in the circumstances.
Many of us have to rely on professionals to help us out throughout our lives, because we do not have the skills or knowledge to be able to complete certain things on our own.
When we do seek help and advice from a professional we expect them to provide us with the best possible service and to act in our best interests.
If your livestock suffer pain, injury or death and/or you have extra costs because of negligence, you are entitled to compensation.
Negligence is not the same as professional misconduct.
It may be the case that in some rare circumstances, negligence and professional misconduct overlap where for example the negligence has been so gross as to amount to a serious falling short and therefore professional misconduct.
Following an incident, an objective test is applied to determine whether the techniques or methods chosen and implemented by a vet were indeed the general and approved practices amongst his/her peers in the veterinary community and whether he/she acted reasonably in the circumstances known to him/her.
Professional negligence is failing to exercise the normal level of skill and judgement which would be expected of the average registered person, consequent on which damage is suffered.
Negligence must result in harm, loss, injury or damage of some sort. For example, a vet may fail to prescribe the appropriate course of treatment and, as a result, the animal suffers permanent injury or dies.
In the unlikely event that you do wish to claim compensation, try and negotiate with your vet first.
You should obtain legal advice before doing so. If this does not work, you may want to take legal action.
It can be very difficult to prove negligence.
Often, it comes down to the personal, professional judgement of your vet about what was the most appropriate treatment in your animal’s case.
In order to be able to prove negligence, you must prove that the person had a duty of care to you.
In most cases, if you have engaged professional services, this should be relatively easy to prove.
You must also be able to prove that the duty of care they owed you has been breached and that you have suffered some loss or damage as a result.
It is also important to be aware of the time periods in bringing a claim for negligence against a vet.
Legal proceedings must be started within six years of the negligence occurring.
Due to the level of training and expertise required in the veterinary profession vets maintain a trusted position in the farming community.
Furthermore there is of course an ever-present possibility of human error as with all codes of occupation, and consequently, incidents arise from time to time.
The vast majority of vets who have a moral calling to protect the best interests of animals should not have a problem concerning negligent behaviour, however if a vet is rushing or over-worked and fatigued then issues may arise.
It is a vet’s role to treat sick animals, however, farming is a business and there are costs involved in securing the services of a vet.
Often the nature of farmers is to attempt to treat their own animal for minor ailments. For economic reasons there may be a delay telephoning the vet.
This regularly puts vets in awkward situations where an animal’s state may be gone beyond medical treatment or a farmer’s own actions may have put the animal in a non-retrievable state.
This should not be seen as a professional negligence case on the part of the vet.
We must always be careful to avoid the decent into a compensation culture.
However, vets have a responsibility to act in a professional and generally approved manner, and there will always be certain risks involved as with any form of medicine and incidents will happen.
