A leading dental body has claimed that the costs of legal aid, required when dentists are forced to defend themselves against an allegation, are regularly exceeding the compensation received by patients.
According to Rupert Hoppenbrouwers, head of the Dental Defence Union (DDU), the average cost of indemnity payments being made on the behalf of DDU members is growing.
"The most significant factor in this has been the rise in legal costs which now regularly exceed the compensation received by the patient," he explained.
Figures from the DDU show that high legal costs tend to occur most often with Conditional Fee Arrangements (CFAs), which represent more than 40 per cent of dental claims in the UK and tend to be more complicated than other cases.
Under the Conditional Fee Arrangement, dental patients are not required to pay their solicitor's legal fees if the case is unsuccessful. However, in the event of a successful case the solicitor can claim a success fee from the patient in addition to general fees.
Questioning whether the process is fair, Mr Hoppenbrouwers continued: "It is important in the absence of legal aid for these cases that patients are able to have access to expert advice to help them to bring a claim if they think they have been negligently injured and that patients who have been avoidably harmed by clinical negligence should be fairly and promptly compensated."
"However, a system that provides solicitors' firms with rewards out of all proportion to the value of the claim cannot be right."
