5 Medical Malpractice Settlement Lessons From The Pros

How to File a Medical Malpractice Case

A patient who finds an object foreign to the body such as surgical clamps inside her body following gall bladder surgery could bring a lawsuit against a doctor for medical negligence. A successful lawsuit must prove the legal elements of medical negligence: duty, deviance from this duty, direct causes, and injury.

It is vital for our clients to establish a direct relationship between the breach of duty and the injury, known as proximate causation.

Causes of Injury

A medical malpractice lawsuit can be filed either by the injured person or an attorney. Depending on the circumstances this could be the spouse of the patient, an adult child or parent, a guardian ad litem, or the administrator or executor of the estate of the deceased patient. The defendant in a suit for medical negligence is the health care provider. This could be a doctor, nurse, therapist or any other licensed health care professional.

Malpractice cases usually require a lot of expert testimony. Medical experts are required to be able to testify that the medical professional acted within the standard of medical malpractice lawyer care within their particular field of expertise. They must also testify as to the harm caused by the doctor’s actions or inactions.

Injuries caused by negligence and Medical Malpractice Law Firm malpractice can be severe. A misdiagnosis can have serious consequences, like the possibility of a life-threatening illness. Other types of injuries include operating on the wrong body part or putting instruments inside the patient during surgery.

In order to establish a malpractice claim the patient must demonstrate four legal elements: a duty that the physician owed to them; a breach of the breach; a resulting injury and damages. In certain states, such as New York, the law places a limit on the amount of money that can be awarded for an injury resulting from a malpractice claim.

Causation

The injury element, also referred to as causation is one of the most important elements in medical malpractice cases. To prove causation, the plaintiff must prove that the injury was the result of the doctor's negligence. This is a challenging task due to several reasons.

Many injuries that are the basis for a medical negligence lawsuit result from chronic issues that existed before treatment began. The time period for filing a Medical Malpractice Law Firm malpractice case could be extended over the course of several years and injuries can develop slowly.

In these cases it is difficult to prove that a medical professional's breach of the standard of care and led to the injury is not easy. However, the aggrieved patient might be able use the evidence gathered by the attorney, such as medical records and expert testimony.

During the discovery process that is part of the legal procedure for the preparation of a trial your lawyer can request the lawyers representing the defendants disclose expert testimony and other documents. The doctor who is representing the case will be asked to take a deposition. This is a statement that is made under the oath. Your lawyer can cross-examine the doctor and contest their findings. The jury will decide if the plaintiff has proven the elements of the case including breach of duty and causation.

Negligence

When a medical malpractice claim is filed the plaintiff must to convince the jury that it was more likely than not that the doctor breached his or her professional duties and those violations caused injury. The plaintiff's attorney must prove this by using evidence obtained during discovery. This includes requesting documents, including medical records from all parties involved in a lawsuit. Depositions, wherein statements are made under oath, and recorded to be used at trial, are also part of this procedure.

A doctor has breached their professional obligation in the event that they did something a reasonable prudent physician would not have done under similar circumstances. It must be established that the breach caused injury directly to the patient. This is known as causation or proximate causes. For example an individual goes to the hospital for a hernia operation and ends up having his or the gall bladder removed instead. This is medical negligence since the removal did not benefit the patient.

Medical malpractice suits must be filed within a specific legal timeframe, also known as the statute of limitations. This differs from state to state. The person who suffered the injury must prove that the negligent treatment caused injury, then they must establish what compensation they're entitled to.

Damages

If medical negligence caused you to suffer a traumatic injury, you should be compensated. Scaffidi & Associates can help you receive a fair and complete compensation for your losses.

The first step in a lawsuit is to file and serve a complaint as well as summons and other documents on all defendants. The parties then engage in discovery, a process in which documents and declarations are made public under the oath. During discovery, medical records and doctor's notes will usually be requested.

In most states, you must prove four things to be compensated for injuries caused by medical malpractice that is a duty owed by the healthcare provider in breach of that duty; a causal relationship between the breach and the patient's injury and the damages that result from the injury. If your lawyer can prove all of these elements, then you've got a strong case for financial compensation in a medical malpractice law firm malpractice claim.

In some cases the court might make punitive damages a possibility that is intended to punish the perpetrator and deter others from engaging in similar misconduct. However, this isn't the norm in medical malpractice cases as the courts require extremely evident proof of malice in order to award these awe-inspiring awards.