Making Medical Malpractice Legal

Medical malpractice is a highly specialized legal issue. Physicians should take steps to guard against legal liability by purchasing a sufficient medical malpractice insurance.

Patients need to prove that the physician's breach of duty has caused them harm. Damages are contingent on economic losses such as lost income, future medical costs and other non-economic losses such as pain and discomfort.

Duty of care

The first thing medical malpractice lawyers need to establish in the case is the duty of care. All healthcare professionals are accountable towards their patients to perform according to the standards of care appropriate to their particular field. This includes nurses, doctors and other medical professionals. It also covers assistants interns, medical students working under the supervision of an attending doctor or physician.

A medical expert witness decides the standards of medical care in court. They examine the medical records to determine what an experienced physician in the same area would have done under similar circumstances.

If the healthcare professional's actions, or lack of action fell below the standard, they acted in violation of their duty of care and caused injury. The injured patient then has to demonstrate that the breach of duty by the healthcare professional directly triggered their losses. These could include scarring, pain and other injuries. This could include medical expenses loss of wages, as well as other financial losses.

If a surgeon has left an instrument for surgery in the patient following surgery, this can cause pain or other problems, which could result in damage. Medical malpractice lawyers can establish through the testimony of a medical expert that the negligence of the surgical team caused the damages. This is known as direct causation. The patient must also provide evidence of their damages.

Breach of duty

If a medical professional departs from the accepted standard of care, and this causes injury to the patient A malpractice claim can be filed. The person who was injured must prove that the physician breached their duty of care by providing treatment that was not up to par. The doctor must have acted negligently, and the negligence caused the patient to suffer damage.

To establish that a doctor did not meet his duty of care, a knowledgeable attorney must present expert witness testimony to demonstrate that the defendant did not possess or exercise the same level of expertise and understanding that doctors of their specialization have. Further, the plaintiff must show a direct relationship between the alleged negligence and the injuries he suffered that resulted from it. This is known as causation.

Additionally, the injured plaintiff must also prove that they would not have chosen that course of treatment if they had been properly informed. This is also called the principle of informed consent. Physicians have a duty to inform patients about possible complications or risks that may arise from a procedure before they perform surgery or put the patient under anesthesia.

The statute of limitations is a time period that must be adhered to by the injured person to pursue a claim for medical malpractice. A court will almost always dismiss a case filed after the statute of limitations has expired regardless of how serious the error of the health professional or how harmed the patient was. Some states have laws that require parties in a medical malpractice suit to engage in binding arbitration at a voluntary basis or submit their claims to a screening panel prior to going to trial.

Causation

Both the lawyers and the physicians who are involved in the litigation need to invest significant amounts of time and effort to prove medical malpractice. To prove that a doctor's treatment was not as a standard, it is necessary to examine records, interview witnesses, and analyze medical literature. Additionally, lawsuits must be filed within a specified period of time set by law. Typically, this deadline, also known as the statute of limitations -- begins to expire when the health care treatment error occurred or when the patient discovered (or should have known in the eyes of the law) that they were harmed due to a doctor's error.

Proving causation is one of the four elements that are essential to a medical malpractice claim, and it is perhaps the most difficult to prove. A lawyer must show that a doctor's failure to fulfill the duty of care directly led to injury to the patient and the injuries or losses could not have occurred if it weren't due to the negligence of the doctor. This is referred to as actual or proximate reasons and the legal requirement to prove this is different from the standard required in criminal proceedings, where evidence must be beyond reasonable doubt.

If an attorney can prove these three factors that the victim of malpractice could be entitled to monetary compensation. These damages are designed to cover the cost of injuries as well as loss of quality of life, and other damages.

Damages

Medical malpractice cases can be complex and require expert testimony. The lawyer representing the plaintiff must demonstrate that a doctor did not adhere to the standards of medical treatment and that the failure led to injuries, and that the injury resulted from damages. The plaintiff must also show that the injury was measurable in terms of money.

Medical negligence claims can be one of the most complicated and expensive legal cases. To lower the costs of litigation, many states have introduced tort reform laws that aim to improve efficiency, decrease frivolous lawsuits, and compensate injured parties fairly. Some of these measures include reducing the amount plaintiffs can recover for suffering and pain; limiting the number of defendants that could be accountable for the payment of an award (joint and multiple liability) as well as making arbitration, mediation or the submission of an action to a panel for screening prior to trial; and imposing limits on damages in medical malpractice lawsuits.

Many malpractice claims also involve technical issues that are difficult to comprehend by juries and judges. Experts are essential in these cases. If the surgeon commits an error during surgery, the lawyer for the patient has to hire an orthopedic surgeon to explain how the mistake would not have happened if the surgeon had acted according to the relevant medical guidelines.