How to File a Medical Malpractice Case

A patient who finds a foreign object such as surgical clamps in 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, deviation from this obligation, direct cause and injury.

Our clients must establish a direct link between the breach of duty and the injury. This is known as the proximate cause.

Cause of Injury

A medical malpractice claim can be filed by the injured person or an attorney. Depending on the circumstances, this could be the spouse of the patient or an adult child parent, guardian ad Litem or the executor or administrator of the estate of the deceased patient. The plaintiff in a medical malpractice suit is the health professional. This could be an accredited nurse, doctor or therapist.

Malpractice cases usually require many expert witnesses. Harrington park medical malpractice Attorney experts must testify as to whether or the medical professional followed the standard of care for their specific area. They also have to testify about the injury that was caused by the physician's actions or inactions.

Injuries resulting from malpractice and negligence can be very severe. A misdiagnosis can have serious consequences, such as an illness that could be life-threatening. Other kinds of injuries involve operating on the wrong body part or leaving surgical instruments inside the patient.

To prove a malpractice case the patient has to prove four legal elements: a duty that the physician owed to them; a breach of this duty; a resultant injury and damages. In certain states, such as New York the law limits the amount of money that can be awarded in a malpractice case.

Causation

The injury element, also referred to as causation, is among the most crucial elements in a whiteville medical malpractice lawsuit malpractice case. To prove causation, the plaintiff must prove that the injury was caused by a physician's negligence. This can be a challenging task due to several reasons.

Many injuries that are the basis for medical negligence lawsuits result from long-term illnesses or issues that existed before treatment started. The time limit for a medical malpractice case could be extended over several years and injuries may develop slowly.

In these instances, it is difficult to prove that one particular medical professional's breach of the standards of care caused the injury. However, the aggrieved patient might be able use the evidence gathered by the attorney, including medical documents and expert testimony.

During the discovery process that is part of the legal procedure for the preparation of a trial your attorney can request that the lawyers of the defendants provide expert testimony and other documents. The doctor who is representing the case will be required to take a deposition. This is a declaration that is given under an oath. Your lawyer can challenge doctor's findings and cross-examine them. The jury will decide whether the plaintiff has substantiated the facts of the case including breach of duty and causation.

Negligence

When a medical malpractice claim is filed the plaintiff has to convince the jury that it was more likely than not that the doctor violated professional duties and that those breaches caused injury. The plaintiff's lawyer must be able to prove this by utilizing evidence obtained during discovery. This involves requesting documents, including medical records and other records from all parties in a lawsuit. The process also involves the recording of sworn statements and used at trial.

A doctor has breached their professional duty when they did something that reasonable and prudent doctors would not have done under the same circumstances. It must be established that the breach caused the injury directly to the patient. This is known as causation or proximate causes. For example when a patient is taken to the hospital for a hernia procedure and then has his or her gall bladder removed instead. This is medical malpractice because the removal of the gall bladder was not beneficial to the patient.

Medical malpractice suits must be filed within a legal time frame, also known as the statute of limitations. This is different from state to state. The patient who is injured must prove that the negligent care caused injury and then he or she must prove the amount of financial compensation he or her deserves.

Damages

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

The first step in a lawsuit is to file and serve a complaint, summons and other documents on all defendants. The parties then proceed to discovery, in which documents and statements are disclosed under an oath. During discovery, medical records and doctor's notes will typically be sought.

In the majority of states, you must prove four things in order 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 link between the breach and the injury suffered by the patient and the damages that result from the injury. If your attorney can demonstrate all of these aspects of a medical negligence claim, you will have a strong case.

In some instances the court can make punitive damages a possibility that is intended to penalize a wrongdoer and deter others from engaging in similar misconduct. This is not the norm however, in medical malpractice cases. The courts must be able to prove evidence of malice before they are able to give these extraordinary damages.