How to File a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

To bring a medical malpractice lawsuit against a hospital or doctor it is necessary to prove that the defendant has violated their duty towards patients. This evidence could include hospital and medical documents.

Our lawyers are skilled at conducting effective depositions of witnesses. They could be doctors, other medical professionals in private practice, or working at a hospital or clinic.

Negligence

Patients are entitled to receive certain standards of care when they visit a hospital, doctor, or health care professional. In some instances, these standards are not met, or even violated. The results of this breach could be devastating.

A lawsuit may be brought against a medical professional when patients are injured or suffers a death due to the negligence of the doctor. To prove a case the patient who has been injured must establish four legal aspects: duty, breach, damages and causation.

Malpractice can be described as an act performed by doctors that goes against the accepted norms within the medical community and causes harm to the patient. It is a subset of tort law, which deals with civil wrongs that do not fall under contractual duties or criminal offenses.

Medical negligence differs from normal negligence in that the victim must prove that the doctor knew or should have known that their actions could cause harm to prove malpractice, whereas normal negligence does not. For example a surgeon who accidentally nicks a nerve or vein during surgery would be considered negligent, but not malpractice because the doctor was not aiming to cause harm.

In a lawsuit for medical malpractice the defendant is under a legal obligation to treat the patient according to the standard of care a reasonably competent healthcare professional with comparable knowledge and experience in similar circumstances could provide. The breach of duty is important because it demonstrates that the alleged negligence caused the injury.

Damages

In a case of malpractice damages are calculated based upon your losses due to a physician's negligence. These can include both actual financial loss, such as the cost of future medical expenses, and non-economic losses such as pain and suffering.

In order to recover damages, you need to prove that a doctor violated a duty or obligation, and that his lapse from the standard of care resulted in injury, and that the injury caused financial harm that was quantifiable. This is a complex legal analysis that typically requires expert witness testimony.

Some of the losses can be observed immediately, for example an error by a doctor resulted in an infection or other medical issue that require additional treatment. Some damage is more difficult to detect, such as when doctors misdiagnose your condition and you are unable to receive the proper treatment.

If your doctor's malpractice leads to your death then you can sue for the wrongful death. In these claims you're entitled to everything you would have gotten in a survival case and punitive damages.

In many states, there are limitations on the amount you can recover in a malpractice case. The caps differ by state, and often apply to both economic and non-economic damages. Some states have laws that limit how long you have to wait before filing an action.

Time Limits

As with any lawsuit there are deadlines that must be adhered to or the case could be barred. A malpractice suit must typically be filed between two and six years after the act occurred. The timeframe for filing a lawsuit differs by state.

The time limit can be complicated and it is important to speak with an attorney right away. The law firm will investigate to determine if there was a mistake and whether the case will stand up in court. This process can take months or weeks.

Medical malpractice cases are governed by different laws than other types of cases and the statute of limitations is modified. For instance in Pennsylvania a patient must submit a claim within two years from the date they discovered the malpractice or when a reasonable person should have realized the injury existed. This is referred to as the discovery rule.

In some states the statutes of limitations start to run on the date when the Camas Malpractice Lawyer (Vimeo.Com) occurred. This is a problem when the fort smith malpractice lawyer doesn't immediately cause symptoms. Imagine, for example, that a doctor mistakenly left a foreign body in the patient's body after surgery. The patient may not realize the object until three years after the surgery. In this case, the statute of limitations could have start running from the date of the procedure, not the moment the error was discovered.

Expert Witnesses

A lot of medical malpractice cases rely on expert witnesses to explain the facts of the case. A plaintiff's expert will testify about doctors' obligations to the patient, the medical guidelines for doctors with similar qualifications in the area and specialization, and the ways in which the defendant's conduct was different from those standards. The expert will describe why the defendant's omission directly caused the injury to the patient.

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

It is best for an expert to working in the medical field, because they'll have greater understanding of current practice. Jurors and judges typically find practicing professionals more credible than experts who solely rely on the testimony of a court.

It is also preferable to use an expert witness who is skilled in the area of the negligence. For example an expert in medicine who is well versed in treating breast cancer can provide an argument more convincing regarding the cause of the plaintiff's injuries. A medical malpractice lawyer in Ocala will know which experts to ask.