How to File a Medical Malpractice Case

A patient who finds an object foreign to the body such as surgical clamps inside her body after gall bladder surgery is able to sue for medical negligence. A successful lawsuit must establish the elements of medical malpractice: duty, deviation from this duty and the direct cause.

Our clients must establish a direct connection between the breach of duty, and the injury. This is referred to as the proximate cause.

Causes of Injury

A medical negligence case may be filed by the injured patient or a legal person to act on their behalf. Based on the specific circumstances, this could be the spouse of the patient or an adult child, parent, guardian ad Litem or the administrator or executor of the estate of the deceased patient. The defendant in a lawsuit for medical malpractice is the health professional. This could be a nurse, doctor or therapist, or any other licensed health professional.

Malpractice cases usually involve an abundance of expert testimony. Medical experts are required to testify on whether or whether the health professional followed the standard of care for their specific area. They must also testify as to the damage caused by the doctor's actions or inactions.

Injuries that result from malpractice or negligence can be very severe. A mistake in diagnosis can have devastating consequences, such as the possibility of a life-threatening illness. Other kinds of injuries include operating on the wrong part or putting instruments inside the patient during surgery.

The patient must establish four legal elements of a malpractice lawsuit: a duty owed to the patient by the doctor; a breach of this obligation; an injury resulting by the breach and resulting damages. In some states, like New York, the law puts a limit on amount of money that can be awarded for a malpractice claim.

Causation

The injury element is also known as the causation. It is one of the most important elements in a demopolis medical malpractice attorney negligence claim. To establish causation the plaintiff must prove that their injury was the result of the doctor's negligence. This can be a challenging task due to a variety of reasons.

For instance, many of the injuries that are the cause of a medical negligence lawsuit arise from long-term or ongoing illnesses that were in the process of being treated prior to. The time-limit for a medical malpractice case could be extended over the course of several years and injuries can develop slowly.

In these instances, it is difficult to prove that a certain medical professional's failure to adhere to the standard of care led to the injury. The attorney could have collected evidence, such as medical records and expert testimony which the injured patient could use.

During the discovery process, which is an integral part of the legal process for prepping for trial, your lawyer could request the disclosure of expert testimony as well as other documents from defendants' attorneys. The doctor who is defending the lawsuit will then be asked to testify during a deposition, which is testimony given under oath. Your lawyer may challenge the doctor's findings and cross-examine them. The jury will decide whether the plaintiff has substantiated that the allegations of the case are true including breach of duty and causation.

Negligence

The plaintiff must convince the jury, when bringing a lawsuit for medical malpractice to show that it is more than likely that the doctor violated the obligations of medical professional and that these breaches resulted in injury. The plaintiff's attorney must prove this by using evidence gathered during pretrial discovery. This includes seeking documents, such as medical records and other records from all parties in the lawsuit. The process also involves swearing statements that are recorded and used at trial.

A doctor has violated his or her professional duty when he or she did something that a reasonable prudent doctor would not do under similar circumstances. It must be proved that the breach resulted in injury directly to the patient. This is called causation or proximate causes. For example when a patient is taken to the hospital for a hernia procedure and ends up having his or her gall bladder removed instead. This is medical negligence since the procedure was not beneficial to the patient.

Medical malpractice lawsuits must be brought within a legally regulated period of time, also known as the statute of limitations that varies from state to state. The patient who was injured must show that the inadequate treatment caused injury, and then they must establish what compensation they're entitled to.

Damages

If medical negligence caused you to sustain an injury, you are entitled to be compensated. Scaffidi & Associates can help you receive full and fair compensation for your losses.

The first step is to file and serve the complaint and summons to all named defendants in the lawsuit. The parties then engage in discovery, a process by which documents and statements are disclosed under an oath. During discovery, medical records and doctor's notes are typically requested.

In most states, you must prove four things to be compensated for injuries incurred by medical malpractice such as a duty due to the healthcare provider; a breach of that duty; a causal connection between the breach and the patient's injury; and damages that flow from the injury. If your attorney can establish all of these elements, then you've got an extremely strong case for financial compensation in a claim for medical malpractice.

In some cases, a court may make punitive damages available, which are intended to penalize the culprit and deter others from engaging in similar conduct. However, this isn't the norm in medical malpractice cases because the courts require precise proof of malice before they can award these awe-inspiring awards.