Ophthalmology medico-legal reports
Independent ophthalmology reports from GMC-registered consultant ophthalmologists, covering eye trauma, partial or total vision loss and the delayed diagnosis of sight-threatening disease, prepared to CPR Part 35 standards for personal injury and clinical negligence claims across England and Wales.
Sight is the sense people fear losing most, and eye claims are judged accordingly. A blunt injury from an assault, a chemical splash at work, a retinal detachment left too long, a cataract operation that goes wrong, each can take vision that does not come back. Expert Medical Examination arranges independent reports from GMC-registered consultant ophthalmologists who examine the claimant, review the records and imaging, and set out diagnosis, medical causation and prognosis for the court. These claims split between personal injury, where trauma has damaged the eye, and clinical negligence, where a diagnosis was missed or an operation fell below a reasonable standard, and the ophthalmologist addresses both from the same clinical footing.
Solicitors instruct ophthalmology experts for eye injuries after accidents and assaults, and for negligence claims ranging from delayed glaucoma diagnosis to complications of laser and cataract surgery, while insurers rely on the same independent evidence when the extent or cause of the sight loss is in dispute. Vision can be measured precisely, so the report records acuity, visual fields and the functional loss that follows, and separates it from any pre-existing eye disease. Each report is prepared to CPR Part 35 and Practice Direction 35, with the expert's overriding duty owed to the court rather than the instructing party. We provide the medical evidence, not advice on the law or the value of the claim.
Consultant ophthalmologists on the register
Reports are prepared by consultant ophthalmologists on the GMC Specialist Register, surgeons who examine eyes and operate on them in current practice. When the question is whether a cataract complication, a missed retinal detachment or a delayed glaucoma diagnosis fell below a reasonable standard, the opinion carries the weight of the specialty that does the work, not a general view of the eye.
Causation separated from pre-existing eye disease
Many eyes carry age-related change long before an accident, cataract, macular degeneration or a narrowing drainage angle among them. The report separates the vision the incident took from what the underlying condition would have cost anyway, and says whether earlier treatment or a competent operation would have preserved sight. Drawing that line is what lets a court value the loss the accident or the negligence actually caused.
Vision loss measured, not estimated
Sight loss can be quantified in a way many injuries cannot. The report records visual acuity, visual field defects and any double vision, then translates the numbers into what they mean for driving, reading and work, including whether the claimant meets the standard to hold a licence. That measured account gives solicitors and insurers a concrete basis for the claim rather than an impression of how bad the eye is.
Sight loss claims valued on measurement
An eye injury can be measured to a decimal, and a report that ignores that helps no one. Our consultant ophthalmologists record what the claimant can still see, explain what the accident or the negligence took, and say plainly whether treatment can recover any of it, so the court can value the loss on the medicine.
- Blunt and penetrating eye injury after accidents and assaults
- Chemical and thermal burns to the eye
- Orbital fracture with double vision or displaced eye
- Traumatic retinal detachment and vitreous injury
- Delayed diagnosis of glaucoma and progressive field loss
- Delayed diagnosis of retinal detachment or giant cell arteritis
- Cataract surgery complications and wrong intraocular lens
- Laser and refractive surgery negligence
- Diabetic retinopathy screening and treatment failures
- Condition and prognosis, breach of duty and causation reports
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