Mr. Ciarán Breen:

Let me outline what normally happens in a medical negligence case.

If a woman has been injured as a result of a medical negligence event, the first thing that normally happens is she will seek her records from the hospital, probably under freedom of information. If, having done that, she feels strongly there may have been a problem, she takes the records to her lawyer, who will send them to medical experts to ask them their advice and to provide expert guidance on whether they feel something went wrong. After that, the lawyers send out a letter of claim and a summons. It is at that point we enter the process to examine the claim. We receive the claim and we begin to examine it.