Making Medical Malpractice Legal

Medical malpractice is a highly specialized legal field. Physicians need to take steps to safeguard themselves from legal liability by obtaining sufficient medical malpractice insurance.

Patients must prove that the doctor's breach of duty caused harm to them, and damages are based on actual economic losses like lost income and costs of future medical procedures, as well as non-economic losses, such as pain and suffering.

Duty of care

The first thing medical malpractice lawyers need to establish in the case is the duty of care. All healthcare professionals have the obligation of acting in accordance with the current standard of care in their specific area of expertise. This includes nurses, doctors and other medical professionals. It also extends to assistants interns, medical students who work under the guidance of an attending physician or doctor.

A medical malpractice attorneys expert witness decides the standard of care in the courtroom. They review the medical records and compare them with what a competent doctor in the same field would do in similar circumstances.

If the healthcare professional's conduct or the absence thereof fell below this standard, they violated their duty of care and caused harm. The patient who was injured must prove that the professional's actions directly impacted their losses. This can include scarring, injury, or pain. They could also include financial loss such as medical expenses and lost wages.

If a surgeon leaves an instrument for surgery in a patient after surgery, this could cause pain or other problems, that could cause damage. A medical malpractice lawyer could prove that the surgical team's breach of their duty caused these damages through testimony from a medical expert. This is called direct causation. The patient must also show evidence of their injuries.

Breach of duty

When a medical professional deviates from the accepted standard of care and this leads to an injury to the patient then a malpractice lawsuit can be filed. The person who was injured must prove that the doctor acted in breach of their duty of caring by providing substandard care. In other words the doctor was negligent and this action caused the patient to suffer damages.

To prove that the physician did not fulfill their duty of care, a skilled attorney needs to present expert testimony to establish that the defendant did not possess or exercise the degree of knowledge and expertise possessed by physicians in their specialty. Additionally, the plaintiff has to demonstrate a direct link between the negligence alleged and the injuries he suffered; this is known as causation.

A person who is injured must also show that he or she would not have chosen an alternative treatment if informed. This is also known as the principle of informed permission. Physicians must inform their patients about any potential risks or complications that might arise from a certain procedure prior to performing surgery or placing the patient under anesthesia.

The statute of limitations is a time period that must be observed by the patient who was injured to bring a claim against medical malpractice. No matter how serious the error made by the medical professional or how seriously the patient has been injured, a court will almost always reject any claim made after the statutes of limitations have passed. Certain states require that the parties to a medical malpractice lawsuit submit their claims to an independent screening panel or to arbitral binding arbitration in a voluntary manner as an alternative to the trial.

Causation

Both the lawyers and the physicians who are involved in the litigation need to invest significant amounts of time and effort to demonstrate medical malpractice. To prove that a doctor's treatment was not up to standard required, it is necessary to review records, interview witnesses, and review medical literature. A law requires that lawsuits be filed within the time frame set by the court. Generally, this deadline - referred to as the statute of limitations--begins to run when the mistake in health care occurred or when a patient discovers (or should have known according to the law) that they had been harmed by a mistake made by a doctor.

Proving causation is one the four fundamental elements of a medical malpractice case and it is perhaps the most difficult to prove. A lawyer must demonstrate that a physician's breach of the duty to care caused injury to a patient, and that the injury would not have happened but because of the negligence of the doctor. This is referred to as real or proximate cause and the legal standard to prove this aspect differs from that required in criminal proceedings, in which the proof must be beyond reasonable doubt.

If a lawyer can prove these three elements the person who was harmed may be entitled to financial compensation. The purpose of these damages is to pay the victim for their injuries and loss of quality of life and other damages.

Damages

Medical malpractice cases can be complex and require expert testimony. The attorney representing the plaintiff must demonstrate that the doctor did not meet a minimum standard of care, that such failure caused injury, and that such injury resulted in damages. The plaintiff must also show that the injury was quantifiable in monetary terms.

Medical negligence cases are among the most complex and expensive legal cases you can bring. To reduce the cost of lawsuits, states have introduced tort reforms aimed at enhancing efficiency by limiting frivolous claims and paying injured parties fairly. Some of these measures include reducing the amount that plaintiffs are able to recover for suffering and pain while limiting the number defendants who are responsible for the payment of an award (joint and several liability) or making arbitration, mediation or the submission of an action to a panel of judges for a screening prior to trial; and setting limits on the amount of damages awarded in medical malpractice suits.

Many malpractice cases also have technical aspects that are difficult to understand by juries and judges. Experts are essential in these cases. If the surgeon commits an error during surgery, the lawyer of the patient needs to engage an orthopedic surgeon to explain why the error wouldn't have occurred if the surgeon had acted in accordance with the applicable medical guidelines.