The effect of the Montgomery judgment on settled claims against the National Health Service due to failure to inform before giving consent to treatment

Background A landmark legal judgment in March 2015 (Montgomery) changed the test for determining negligence due to failing to inform patients before consent, by moving away from asking what a reasonable doctor should disclose and asking instead what a reasonable patient would expect to know. Aim We sought to determine the effect Montgomery has had on settled claims due to failure to inform compared with claims for other reasons and whether legal firms are adding contributory claims of failure to inform to other principal allegations of negligence. Methods A Freedom of Information request to NHS Resolution provided data on the number of settled claims against the NHS (2005–19) for any cause and where failure to inform before consent was the principal or contributory cause. Time-series regression was used to compare trends before and after 31 March 2015. Results The trend in claims/year increased 4-fold for failure to inform (an increase of 9.8/year before 2015 vs. 39.5/year after 2015, P < 0.01), 2.7-fold when failure to inform was the principal cause (7.9/year vs. 21.2/year, P = 0.02) and 9.9-fold as a contributory cause (1.9/year vs. 18.3/year, P < 0.01). There was no material difference in claims due to other causes (334/year vs. 318/year, P = 0.84). Conclusions Montgomery has led to a substantial increase in settled claims of failure to inform before consent, with no coincident change in claims for other causes. The increase in contributory compared with principal causes suggests that lawyers are using the judgment to increase the chances of a successful claim against the NHS.