You ll Never Guess This Malpractice Case s Benefits

How to File a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

Bringing a medical malpractice suit against a doctor or hospital requires evidence that the defendant breached his or her obligation to patients. This evidence can include hospital and medical records.

Our attorneys are experienced at taking effective depositions of witnesses. They may be doctors, other medical professionals working in private practice or are employed at a hospital or clinic.

Negligence

Patients have the right to receive certain standards of care when they visit a hospital, doctor or health care professional. Unfortunately, these standards are not always met or even violated. This can cause devastating consequences.

When someone suffers injury or death as a result of a doctor's negligence, they can file a lawsuit against the medical professional. To establish a case, the person who was injured must establish four legal elements including breach of duty and damages and causation.

malpractice law firms can be defined as an act committed by a doctor that is outside the accepted norms of the medical field and can cause harm to patients. It is an aspect of tort law, which deals with civil wrongs that aren't legal obligations or criminal offenses.

Medical negligence is different from regular negligence in that the person who is injured has to prove that the doctor knew, or should have known that their actions were likely to cause harm before they are able to claim malpractice. Normal negligence does not. For example, a surgeon who accidentally nicks a nerve or vein during surgery could be considered negligent, but not malpractice as the doctor was not aiming to cause harm.

In a medical malpractice case the defendant is bound by the obligation of treating the patient according to the standard of care that a reasonably competent healthcare professional with the same expertise and training in similar situations would provide. The breach of duty is crucial because it shows that the negligent act caused the injury.

Damages

In a malpractice case, damages are calculated based on your losses due to a physician's negligence. This can include both financial losses, such as the expense of medical treatment in the future, and non-economic losses like suffering and pain.

To recover damages, you have to prove that the doctor breached a duty of care, that the physician's deviation from the standard resulted in injury, and that this injury had quantifiable monetary consequences. This is a difficult legal analysis that usually requires expert witness testimony.

Some of these losses can be seen in a matter of minutes, for instance when a mistake made by a doctor malpractice resulted in an infection or other medical issues that required further treatment. Some damage is more difficult to identify like when an expert misdiagnoses your illness and you don't receive the correct treatment.

You may sue for wrongful deaths when a doctor's negligence caused your death. In these cases you are legally entitled to all the compensation you would have received in a survival case as well as punitive damages.

In many states, there are limits on the amount you can recover in a legal case. The caps differ by state and usually apply to both economic and non-economic damages. Certain states have laws that limit the amount of time you can delay before filing a lawsuit.

Time Limits

Like any lawsuit, there are time limits which must be observed or the case may be barred. A malpractice lawsuit should generally be filed between two and six years after the act occurred. The time limit differs by state.

It is important to consult an attorney as soon as you can. The law firm will conduct an investigation to determine if any malpractice was committed and if it could be able to stand in the court. This phase can last for several weeks or even months.

Medical malpractice cases have different laws than other types of cases and often the statute of limitations is extended. For example in Pennsylvania the patient has to file a claim within 2 years from the day they were aware of the malpractice, or when a reasonable individual should have realized the injury existed. This is known as the discovery rule.

In other states the statute of limitations begins at the time the malpractice occurred. This can be an issue if the error is not immediately causing symptoms. Imagine, for instance, that a doctor malpractice has negligently left a foreign object in the body of a patient following surgery. The patient may not realize the object until three years after the surgery. In this situation the statute of limitations could have been at the time of surgery, not the time of discovery of an error.

Expert Witnesses

Many medical malpractice cases depend on experts to explain the facts of the case. An expert witness for the plaintiff will testify on the duty of the doctor towards the patient, medical standards for doctors who have similar qualifications in the area and specialty and the ways in which the defendant's conduct was different from the standard. The expert will also explain how the defendant's departure directly caused the injury to the patient.

The defendant will employ an expert to counter the plaintiff's expert and provide their professional opinion on whether the doctor met the standard of care. The experts could disagree, but the fact-finder decides which expert is most trustworthy.

It is recommended for the expert to be working in the medical field as they are more informed about current practice. Jurors and judges typically find practicing professionals more credible than experts whose only source of income is a testimony in court.

It is also advisable to have an expert witness that is specialized in the area of the legal malpractice. A medical professional with experience treating breast cancer, for example, can make an argument that is convincing regarding the reason for an injury. A medical malpractice attorney in Ocala knows which experts to ask.