Orford v Dr Lyons [2020] NSWSC 1022

Finally, and in passing, I wish to make some observations about what regrettably has become the preferred form of statements of claim in medical negligence matters. I apologise to those practitioners who appear regularly in my list who may have heard these comments before. More often than not these days, those who charge fees for preparing statements of claim seem to be inspired by the erroneous perception that they should start with the day that the plaintiff first attended his or her doctor and that they should thereafter refer in ridiculous detail to every single event that can be extracted from doctors’ notes or clinical records or radiological findings or even passing comments by the doctor’s receptionist. A pleading commencing a cause of action alleging a failure to provide reasonable medical care can in my experience rarely, if ever, be enhanced, for example, by telling the reader that the plaintiff’s blood pressure was 125/68 at 10.27pm, 127/71 at 10.31pm, 122/57 at 10.43pm or that he or she slept uneventfully until woken by the night nurse for a temperature check at 4.00am! It is not uncommon for these cascading adventures in medical history to proceed in this fashion for days or even weeks, staggering endlessly through mind-numbing detail. Undoubtedly a long letter is quicker to write than a short one. I appreciate and accept that the latest edition of Bullen & Leake may be expensive but even a well-worn copy from 30 years ago will more than adequately explain, for anyone in doubt, why I hold these views.