Medical Malpractice Litigation

Medical malpractice litigation can be lengthy and complicated. It is also expensive for both plaintiff and defendant.

To be awarded monetary compensation for malpractice, the patient must prove that the substandard medical malpractice lawyers treatment he received led to his injury. This involves establishing four legal elements that include a professional duty and breach of duty, injury, Medical Malpractice Lawsuit and medical malpractice lawsuit resulting damages.

Discovery

The most important part of a medical negligence case is gathering evidence. This can be done through written interrogatories and requests for documents. Interrogatories contain questions that the opposing side must answer under oath, and are used for establishing facts to be presented at trial. Requests for production of documents allow for tangible items to be obtained for example, medical records or test results.

In many cases your attorney will record the deposition of a defendant physician, which is an audio recording of questions and answers. This allows your attorney to ask the doctor or witness questions that would not be permitted at trial. This can be very efficient in cases involving expert witnesses.

The information gathered during pretrial discovery is used at trial to prove the following components of your claim:

Infraction to the standard of care

Injuries that result from a violation of the standards of care

Proximate causation

A doctor's failure to use the knowledge and skill held by physicians in their field of specialization and that resulted in injury to the patient

Mediation

Although medical malpractice trials are often required, they come with significant disadvantages for both sides. The stress, expense and time commitment required by a trial can have a negative impact on plaintiffs. For defendant health professionals, a trial could result in humiliation as well as a loss of prestige. It could also have adverse effects on their practice and career because the financial benefits received as part of a pretrial settlement are usually reported to national practitioner databanks as well as state medical licensing boards, and medical societies.

Mediation is a cheaper time-efficient, risk-effective, and efficient way to resolve the medical malpractice case. Parties can negotiate more freely when they do not have the expense of a trial, and the risk of jury verdicts to be eroded.

Before mediation, both parties give the mediator a brief of information on the case (a "mediation brief"). Parties will usually allow their communication to go through their lawyer instead of directly between themselves at this stage, as direct communications can be used against them later on in court. As the mediation process progresses it is a good idea to concentrate on your case's strengths, and be prepared to recognize its weaknesses. This will allow the mediator to make sense of any gaps and provide you with a reasonable offer.

Trial

The aim of tort reformers is to create an insurance system that compensates people who suffer injuries due to physician negligence promptly and without a large cost. While this is a challenge however, many states have implemented tort reforms to reduce the cost of medical malpractice claims.

The majority of physicians in the United States carry malpractice insurance to safeguard themselves against claims of professional negligence medical cases. Certain of these policies are required as a condition for hospital privileges or work with a medical group.

To be eligible for an amount of money for injuries sustained by negligence of a medical professional, an injured patient must establish that the physician did not adhere to the appropriate standard of care in his or her field. This is referred to as proximate cause, and is an important part of a medical malpractice lawsuit.

A lawsuit starts with the filing of a civil summons or complaint in the court of your choice. Following this the parties must participate in a process of disclosure. This involves written interrogatories as well as the production of documents, such a medical record. Depositions (in which attorneys question deponents under oath) as well as requests for admission are also involved.

The burden of proving medical malpractice cases is extremely high, and the damages awarded are based on the actual economic loss, such as lost income and the costs of future medical treatment and non-economic losses such as suffering and pain. It is important to consult with an experienced lawyer when you are trying to file a medical malpractice lawsuit.

Settlement

Settlements are the simplest method of settling medical malpractice lawsuits. In general, the actual dollar value of a case is negotiated between the plaintiff and the defendants (often through or alongside the defendant's malpractice/professional liability insurer). The result is an amount for the injured patient, which is then given to the lawyer of the plaintiff who then deposits it into an Escrow account. The lawyer subtracts the legal fees and costs in accordance with the representation agreement and then provides the injured victims with compensation.

In order to win a medical malpractice lawsuit, the aggrieved patient has to prove that a physician or other healthcare provider was bound by a duty of care, but violated that duty by failing perform the required level of knowledge and competence in their field, and that in direct consequence of that breach, the victim sustained injury, and these injuries are measurable in terms of monetary losses.

The United States has a system of 94 federal district courts which are equivalent to state trial courts. And each court has an appointed judge and jury panel which hears cases. In certain instances a medical negligence case may be transferred to one of these federal district courts. In the United States, physicians carry medical malpractice insurance to safeguard themselves from claims of harm that is not intentional. Physicians must understand the structure and functioning of our legal system in order to take appropriate action if a claim is brought against them.