Then You ve Found Your Medical Malpractice Legal ... Now What

Medical Malpractice Attorneys

Medical professionals must adhere to an exacting standard of care for their patients. If a health professional fails to adhere this standard, and this failure results in injuries or complications to the patient, it could be a cause for a claim for malpractice.

A successful malpractice lawsuit can aid in paying medical expenses pay back lost wages, and acknowledge pain and suffering. However, medical malpractice claims are often complicated.

Undiagnosed

The misdiagnosis of a patient is among the most frequently filed medical malpractice claims. This type of case typically involves a health care provider wrongly diagnosing a patient suffering from an illness or injury. A physician may identify a patient with pneumonia, but in reality the patient has staph. A misdiagnosis can have serious consequences, including death.

According to medical malpractice insurers that cover diagnosis-related malpractice, claims for this type of malpractice account for 9 percent (obstetrics) and 61% (pediatrics) of their total claims. However the information on medical malpractice claims is not comprehensive and could be biased toward more severe mistakes. Furthermore, claims often lapse or are dismissed without being paid and a lot of meritorious mistakes won't result in a malpractice lawsuit.

To succeed in bringing a medical malpractice claim, a plaintiff must prove that the doctor acted in violation of the standard of care when diagnosing the condition. The lawyer representing the plaintiff needs to show that the doctor's mistake directly led to an injury.

The litigation process in a medical malpractice case can be expensive time-consuming, emotionally charged and lengthy. While the majority of medical malpractice cases are settled out of court, attorneys for both parties and expert witnesses have to spend time and money in negotiations, discovery, and trial preparation. In addition, physicians are often forced to pay their malpractice insurance premiums while the claims process unfolds. These costs have prompted calls for tort reform which could reduce the cost of litigation and promote faster and more fair settlements.

Errors in Treatment

You should expect that when you go to a doctor or a hospital to receive treatment, the medical care you receive will be in accordance to the standard of care in your community. This includes accurate diagnosis and treatment, a reasonable course of treatment, and a proper follow-up to ensure your health improves. However, mistakes by nurses, doctors, and other medical personnel can be devastating and cause permanent injury or even death.

These mistakes can take a variety of forms. A hospital staff member could misread the patient's chart and then administer the wrong medication. This kind of error usually occurs in emergency rooms, where the time available is limited and staff members are pressured to provide fast service. It can also happen if the doctor treats a problem that isn't within his or her area of expertise.

Other types of errors can be caused by prescribing incorrect medication or giving patients the wrong dose, which can result in injury. These errors can be made by doctors, nurse practitioners or pharmacists, physician assistants, and optometrists. They can also involve failing to prescribe or recommend follow-up care necessary to treat the problem.

Mistakes in medication can lead to various serious injuries. When a heart patient is taking a medication, the use of a blood thinner can lead to a dangerous bleeding disorder. It can also trigger a stroke. If you've suffered an injury or lost a loved one due to a medical error, it is crucial to consult with an experienced New York medical malpractice lawyer to determine if you're eligible to seek compensation.

Negligence

When medical professionals or doctors fail to follow accepted standards of care, they could be found guilty of carelessness. This can happen in a variety of places, such as hospitals, doctors' offices, therapy clinics, and nursing homes. If a doctor does not adhere to these guidelines and a patient suffers permanent harm the doctor could be liable to pay for the damage.

In order to win a malpractice case the party who was injured has to establish that the doctor's failure in professional duties led to his or her injuries. Causation is a legal standard that is essential. The breach must be the direct cause of the injury, and the damages must be quantifiable.

In cases involving medical negligence, the plaintiff's attorney must also convince jurors that it is more probable than not that the physician's actions or inactions led to the damages alleged. This can be difficult because people's memories are not always clear or they are affected by the arguments of the opposing side.

It is vital that the lawyer has a thorough understanding of how the medical profession functions. This knowledge can be used to prove that the breach of professional duty led to the patient's injury. Medical malpractice cases can be filed in Federal or state courts, and often require an expert witness to provide the standard of care that was not met.

Punitive Damages

We tend to assume that we can trust medical professionals to treat us with competence and care. Serious errors can lead to serious injuries or even death. If these mistakes result in a wrongful demise, the family members of the victims could be entitled to compensation for damages they've suffered.

In the case of wrongful deaths hospitals, doctors, nurses as well as pharmacists and physical therapists along with diagnostic imaging technicians and manufacturers of medical equipment, could be sued. Since many parties could be accountable in a case, it's generally recommended for victims to make claims against them all in conjunction with their New York medical malpractice lawyers to determine which people or companies need to be sued.

Punitive damages aim to punish the defendant for their actions and prevent them from repeating the same behavior in the future. Unlike compensatory damages, which are intended to remedy specific harms however, punitive damages can be applied to a broad class of people and they are typically reserved for extreme misconduct.

The primary type of damages in medical malpractice lawsuits is the reimbursement of actual financial losses, such as expenses for medical care and lost wages. Your New York medical negligence lawyer can assist you in determining the amount of your losses by presenting an expert opinion on what constitutes a breach of standard of care in the particular case's location and specialization. This is an important step because without this evidence, your case could be dismissed at the initial hearing level.