9 Things Your Parents Taught You About Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

Making Medical Malpractice Legal

Medical malpractice is a highly specialized legal field. Physicians must be aware of the need to protect themselves against liability by obtaining adequate medical malpractice insurance coverage.

Patients must prove that a physician's breach of duty has caused them harm. Damages are based on economic losses, like lost income, future medical expenses, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and discomfort.

Duty of care

The first element that a medical malpractice lawyer needs to establish in a case is the duty of care. All healthcare professionals owe their patients an obligation to act in accordance with the prevalent standard of care for their particular field. This includes nurses, doctors and other medical professionals. This also applies to assistants interns, medical students under the direction of an attending physician or doctor.

A medical expert witness decides the standards of medical care in court. They look over the medical records and then compare them to what a competent physician in the same field would do in similar circumstances.

If the healthcare professional's or their lack of actions fell in the range of this standard, they've breached the duty of care and resulted in injuries. The injured patient needs to show that the breach of care by the healthcare professional directly led to their losses. These could include scarring, pain, and other injuries. They could also include financial loss such as medical expenses and lost wages.

If a surgeon leaves an instrument used for surgery inside the patient following surgery, this can cause discomfort or other issues which could lead to damage. A medical malpractice lawyer can demonstrate that the surgical team's lack of their duty caused these damages through testimony from an expert in medical practice. This is known as direct causality. The patient must also present evidence of their damages.

Breach of duty

If a doctor deviates from the accepted standard of care, and this deviation causes an injury to the patient, a malpractice claim may be filed. The party who suffered the injury must demonstrate that the doctor violated their duty of caring by providing care that was substandard. The doctor must have acted negligently, and this negligence caused the patient to suffer damages.

To prove that a physician did not fulfill their duty of care, a competent attorney needs to present expert testimony to establish that the defendant failed to be a practitioner or possess the level of skill and knowledge held by physicians who specialize in their field. The plaintiff must also demonstrate that there is a direct link between the alleged negligence and the injuries suffered. This is referred to as causation.

Moreover, the injured plaintiff must demonstrate that they would not have chosen the path of treatment had they been adequately informed. This is also called the principle of informed permission. Physicians must inform patients of any possible risks or complications that might arise from a certain procedure prior to performing surgery or putting the patient under anesthesia.

To make a medical malpractice claim, the victim must make a claim within a certain time frame, known as the statute of limitations. No matter how grave the mistake of the medical professional or how seriously the patient has been injured the court will almost always dismiss any claim filed after statute of limitations has expired. Some states have laws that require parties in a medical malpractice suit to participate in binding arbitration at a voluntary basis or submit their claims to a screening panel in lieu to going to trial.

Causation

Both the lawyers and physicians involved in the lawsuit must invest significant amounts of time and effort to prove medical malpractice. The process of proving doctors' treatment differed from the accepted standard requires extensive review of medical records, appoints with witnesses, and a thorough analysis of medical literature. The law requires that lawsuits be filed within the timeframe set by the court. Generally, this deadline--called the statute of limitations--begins to expire when the medical malpractice occurred or the patient realised (or ought to have realized in the eyes of the law) that they were harmed because of a medical error.

The proof of causation is one the four fundamental elements of a medical malpractice claim, and it is perhaps the most difficult to prove. A lawyer must show that a doctor's failure to fulfill the duty of care directly caused harm to the patient and that the losses or injuries could not have occurred if it weren't due to the negligence of the doctor. This is referred to as actual or proximate cause. The legal standard for proving this element differs from that of criminal cases, where the proof must be beyond reasonable doubt.

If an attorney can prove these three elements the person who was harmed may be entitled to financial compensation. The monetary damages are intended to compensate the victim's injury as well as loss of quality of life, and other loss.

Damages

Medical malpractice cases can be complex and require extensive expert testimony. The plaintiff's lawyer must show that a doctor did not adhere to the standard of medical care and that this omission caused injuries, and that the injury was caused by damages. The plaintiff must also show that the injury was measurable in monetary terms.

Medical negligence cases are among the most difficult and expensive legal cases you can bring. To cut down on the high costs of litigation, states have implemented tort reform measures aimed at increasing efficiency by limiting frivolous claims and compensating injured parties fairly. Some of these measures include limiting the amount that plaintiffs are able to receive for suffering and pain as well as limiting the number defendants who are responsible for the payment of an award (joint and several liability) or having arbitration, mediation or the submission of an action to a panel for screening prior to trial; and placing caps on damages in medical malpractice lawsuits.

Additionally, many malpractice claims are highly technical issues that are difficult for juries and judges to understand. This is why experts are so crucial in these cases. For example in the event that a surgeon makes an error during surgery the patient's attorney must hire an orthopedic expert to explain how the mistake could not have occurred when the surgeon had acted in accordance with relevant medical standards of care.