Report type
Breach and causation reports
Whether the care fell below the standard, and whether that failure caused the harm — the two questions a negligence claim turns on.
Purpose and limits
What this report does
This is the liability report. It addresses two questions, and it keeps them apart.
Breach. Did the treatment fall below the standard of a reasonably competent practitioner in the relevant discipline?
Causation. Did that failure cause the harm, or would the outcome have been the same regardless?
It does not cost future treatment or assess quantum. Where the claim needs both liability and value, this report and a condition and prognosis report are scoped separately.
View condition and prognosis reports →The hard part
Breach is often shown. Causation is where claims are lost.
A report that proves breach and assumes causation follows is the most common weak report in dental litigation.
Breach is often the more straightforward limb: the records show what was done. Causation is where dental claims are lost, because so many teeth were already compromised. A tooth lost after substandard treatment may have been lost anyway. The expert must address what would probably have happened had the treatment been competent — and where the answer is that the outcome would have been the same, the report must say so.
An expert who cannot separate the limbs is an expert whose report collapses when the defence tests causation.
Practice Direction 35
What makes the report compliant
On a liability report two requirements bite hardest, and both sit within the substantive content of the report.
Range of professional opinion
Where a range of opinion exists on breach or on causation, the expert must summarise that range and give reasons for their own view, not state a conclusion alone.
Qualified opinion
Where an opinion cannot be given without qualification — often on causation — the qualification must be stated rather than smoothed over.
Instruction context
When this report is used
- 01
Dental negligence
The primary liability report, addressing whether the treatment fell below the standard and whether that failure caused the harm.
- 02
Screening first, where the claim is uncertain
A screening report can test whether breach and causation are realistically arguable before a full report is commissioned.
- 03
Single joint instruction
Where both parties want one independent view of liability.
Matching the discipline
The expert we match
The discipline that performed the treatment sets the standard. A general dental practitioner’s care is judged by a GDP; specialist treatment by the relevant specialist.
Where causation depends on a different discipline from breach — the standard of an extraction, the consequence a nerve injury — two experts may be needed, and we say so before you instruct.
For instructing solicitors
Why solicitors instruct us
Causation is where we earn the instruction
We match an expert who will address causation squarely, including where it defeats the claim, because a report that proves only breach does not get you home.
The right discipline for the standard
The standard is set by the field that carried out the treatment, not by the most senior expert available.
A named case manager
One consistent point of contact from first enquiry through to delivery of the report, who tells you where the instruction stands before you ask.
Deferred terms for CFA-funded cases
For cases funded under a conditional fee agreement, payment can be deferred to the conclusion of the claim where agreed in writing.
Frequently asked questions
Before you instruct
An expert report addressing whether treatment fell below the standard, and whether that failure caused the harm complained of.
Yes. They are two questions within one liability report, kept distinct.
No. Value is addressed by a condition and prognosis or quantum report, scoped separately.
The report says so. That is the finding, and it is more useful to you before you fund the claim than after.
Discuss an instruction
Need a breach and causation report?
Tell us the treatment and a case manager will send a suitable CV and a fixed quote.