About the CDF

Introduction

The Clinical Disputes Forum is a unique organisation; a group of key people in the field of clinical negligence litigation and other clinical disputes, working together to try to make practical improvements to procedures and to reduce the number of patients who have to go to law to resolve their disputes with their doctors and other healthcare workers.

Registration as a charitable company was achieved in 2000.

The organisation plays a crucial role in bringing clinical, legal and client bodies together to find all-round consensus-based improvements to systems for resolving disputes. Its members include claimant and defendant solicitors, barristers, judges, medical personnel, NHS and private health sector managers, the Deputy Health Service Ombudsman and patient representatives, together with officials from the Departments of Health and Constitutional Affairs, the National Health Service Litigation Authority, the Legal Services Commission and other regulatory bodies.

The Forum works through developing solutions that will be acceptable to all the groups in the field. To achieve its objectives, the CDF establishes an agenda of project work with specialist working groups. The working groups led by Forum members also draw on relevant expertise from outside the organisation and work to develop solutions that will be acceptable to all the groups in the field. Draft papers are circulated for consultation