SUE THE SURGEON?

Anniebabes wrote: ...it has taken a long time but finally my solicitor is starting court proceedings against Optical Express and 2 surgeons, Mr Stefan Klopper and Mr Evangelos Minos

I was botched by Stefan Klopper too. Keep at it and don't give up. My lawyer was a week or two away from issuing court proceedings and things then moved very quickly and they were quite desperate to settle out of court.
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admin: Danny settled for a 6 figure sum and didn't sign a gagging order. www.opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk/ind...-ruined-my-life.html

Just an up date of my story, it has taken a long time but finally my solicitor is starting court proceedings against Optical Express and 2 surgeons, Mr Stefan Klopper and Mr Evangelos Minos. I will keep you all informed.
My advice to anyone who has been damaged by Optical Express, don't give up and keep fighting. I will not give up.

For all the folks out there in litigation, please keep at it and do not give up, there are unbiased experts out there to do reports and just keep plugging away. I have finally come to the end of a very long road with my litigation, I have settled out of court but make no mistake, I was fully prepared to take this to the long haul but after almost 4 long years in litigation things moved rather quickly over the last few months.

I am one of the lucky ones, a great legal team and expert on my side, but now I feel exhausted by the whole process and I'm looking forward to getting on with my life.

Just keep at it and eventually they will want to settle and avoid court at all costs, they know the bad publicity will bury them in the end.

My husband is also taking OE to Small Claims Court and wrote to them asking who should be named as defendant. After three emails and a recorded letter we’ve still had no response from Melanie Todd (OE's in-house solicitor) except to say there’s a letter in the post… weeks later and we’re still waiting!! She also informed us that the clinic where my husband had his surgery had gone into administration. Sound familiar? We thought that Optical Express were the company who provided my husband with his surgery, not some obscure name that we had never heard of. Do they have any clinics left I wonder?

The attached letter from Miss Todd goes to great length to advise us we won't win if we go to court. Did they give Stephanie Holloway the same advice?



Watch this space!!

Carmel (Anonymous)...

You were operated on in May 2013 by DCM Optical Clinic PLC, now in Administration!

I was operated on in November 2012 by Optical Express (Southern) Ltd, now in Administration!

How dodgy does this look? And to make matters worse, OE is the self proclaimed leading eye surgery provider in the UK!!

I am taking OE to Small Claims Court and wrote to them asking who I should name as defendant. This is the response that I received from their in house solicitor, who has not responded in full within the stated 14 days.

My surgery was with Optical Express as far as I was aware, and I still intend to pursue them in the Small Claims Court as they still trade from 22 Harley Street no matter what they call themselves!

In 2008, a woman who suffered peritonitis after a botched hysterectomy was awarded £160,000 in compensation, yet, "Mrs Ronayne went on to make a good recovery."

In 2013 Mr Ronayne was awarded £9,000 for the shock of seeing his wife's (temporary) altered appearance.

Shockingly, the amount of compensation generally paid to people whose eyes are irreparably damaged by refractive eye surgery is considerably less.

And their families don't get a penny for their distress
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3052588...st-NHS-millions.html

Last February (2014) I went to see if I was able to have eye surgery the reason was that since my little boy broke my nose when he was toddler (accident) glasses have hurt my nose and i've struggled. i've been wearing glasses since around 2001.

I was told that yes I was suitable and practically talked into going ahead then and there, signing the agreement, offered discount etc etc...I was told how great my vision would be and watched a video.

2 weeks later I had my surgery and the following day everything was clear! 12 months later my sight is back to how it was before and i'm still using the stronger eye drops for very dry sore eyes daily.

The optician I see on my check ups actually told me that had he done the consultation he would have told me not to go ahead with the surgery as my prescription had been so small anyway. He was actually shocked that I even considered it. I told him that it was my nose and that I felt I had been talked into it. All he did was make a note and told me that I should keep coming for check ups and said that if i have surgery again it would probably make my sight worse, not better. He said that maybe in 5-10 years I could consider surgery again.

I'm still paying off the surgery. For what
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admin Contact info@opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk

Last month Nick R agreed to accept a £25,000 out of court settlement from Optical Express.

With good vision in only one eye Nick should never have been offered laser eye surgery:
www.opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk/ind...-ruined-my-life.html

Because his solicitors were reluctant to go to court, the settlement was only half of what Nick had hoped for, and his hefty legal fees were also deducted from the payment.

The good news is that OE’s lawyers forgot to ask Nick to sign the Settlement Agreement before paying the money into his bank. But, as soon as he posted his news on OERML, the agreement was sent for signature - with a non disclosure clause, aka gagging order. Nick refused to sign and the clause was removed.

The agreement remains unsigned with ongoing discussion concerning the wording:
www.facebook.com/OEClaim

Due to go to court in December 2014, Jacqui contacted me last month and asked that I remove her True Story from OERML, explaining that her case was over:
www.opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk/ind...-ruined-my-life.html

I was not willing to do this and spoke with her solicitor in Scotland. I discovered that Jacqui had signed an out of court agreement, with a gagging order, and OE’s solicitors had refused to pay her unless I took her story off OERML.

It is because of these non disclosure clauses, aka gagging orders, that the true horrors of this industry were hidden for so long, until I came along and upset the industry's abundant apple cart.

I also have a gagging order in my Settlement Agreement, but I helped write it, and with an ongoing court case it's going to be worthless soon:
www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/wo...ges-claim.1420705376

Removing her story from OERML was not a condition of Jacqui’s agreement, and could not be, according to this site's Terms & Conditions. Therefore, Optical Express’ solicitors had no right to demand she ask me to remove it retrospectively.

Needless to say, they backed down and Jacqui has now received her settlement (amount undisclosed).

I’ve been contacted by a number of people who signed up with ‘no win no fee’ law firms, who promised they could help, but then a year later told their clients that, for various reasons, they could do no more e.g. stores gone into administration etc…

In some of those cases the client’s home insurance covered the legal fees, so the solicitors didn't lose out but the client was left high and dry.

And since Stephanie Holloway’s case a lot of ‘ambulance chasers’ are trying to jump on the bandwagon.

If you consult a ‘no win no fee’ legal firm, be sure to ask these Qs before signing with them:

1. How many OE patients/eye surgery victims have they previously represented?
2. Did they win?
3. How much?
4. Who pays for the (expensive) medicolegal report?

NB: There is a time limit in which to commence legal action. In the UK it's 3 yrs from date of knowledge, but in Ireland only 2 yrs!

You have 6 yrs via the Small Claims court, ad can be done without legal representation. However, in my opinion this is only advisable if you're seeking a refund of your deposit, or the cost of unsatisfactory surgery, based on the Sale of Goods Act 1979.

If you have any questions, or want advice regarding which lawyers or medico legal experts to trust, please contact me: info@opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk

I also have a list of names you should absolutely avoid

The PDF forwarded to me to sign a week after I received payment was created less than 24 hours after I posted here on 27th Jan (below).

Somebody must have been so shocked that they created the said wavier and gagging order at 6:49am on the 28th Jan. I am guessing somebody got out of bed early and skipped breakfast because of it. :lol:

What is very interesting in the waiver document is point 2:



How bloody convenient, when you are fighting Optical Express they will jump up and down claiming that the optom and surgeon (Turner and Qazi) are independent contractors and therefore not Optical Express employees, tell you to go and sue them directly, yet the waiver protects them.

At present OE has liabilities of approx £151 MILLION, yup one hundred and fifty one million. How on earth does a company continue to trade owing this much? Clever accounting?

The fact remains that ethically they should never have operated on me, by doing so put me at enormous risk, as retinal tears have since proven.

The settlement documentation can be viewed on Optical Express Settled My Claim Facebook: www.facebook.com/OEClaim