It's not often I want to quote song lyrics but Elton John nicely sums up how frustrating the clinical negligence claim process can be sometimes. 

There are occasions when the lawyers for both sides engage well and the injured claimant is at the heart of the process but there are other occasions when that doesn't happen. It's then down to solicitors to persevere and support their clients to hold their nerve through what can be a very anxious time. 

If the lawyers could just get to the ‘sorry’ earlier, it would speed up the process, save money for everyone concerned and enable the injured person to get their life back on track, so far as that's possible for our clients whose life has been turned upside down by life-changing injuries.

It doesn't have to be this way - the Civil Procedure Rules include an explicit duty for parties to help the court further the overriding objective, which includes encouraging the parties to cooperate and to use alternative dispute resolution. 

There are ways and means a specialist solicitor can leverage this but it's not just about legal strategy. It's also about holding the client's hand (figuratively!) and supporting them to get to the end of the process. 

At Anthony Collins, we're proud to support our clients in that way. I'll always remember something a client once wrote to me at the end of their case: “without you as my lawyer, I would have backed out of my claim a long time ago." 

This brought home how significant our duty is to support clients in the fight to get justice. I know that my colleagues all do the same for their clients too. 

That client's case took almost four years from start to finish but it could have taken less if ‘sorry’ and the admission of negligence came quicker.