BMJ  2003;327:305 (9 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7410.305

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Judges rule that children can sue for wrongful diagnosis of abuse

BMJ

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Children can sue the healthcare trusts and local authorities that wrongly conclude that they have been the victims of abuse, the Court of Appeal for England and Wales ruled last week, in a judgment with far reaching consequences.

Three judges, headed by the master of the rolls, Lord Phillips, held that the public policy considerations barring claims of wrongful diagnosis have been swept away by the Human Rights Act, which came into force in October 2000. But the court ruled that it would be against public policy for parents to be able to sue for the harm they suffered as a result of their child's mistaken diagnosis.

The judges decided that authorities have a common law duty of care towards the children, even where the events predated the Human Rights Act. The ruling will lay local councils and NHS trusts open to negligence claims dating back as far as 21 . . . [Full text of this article]

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