Understanding Your Rights to Medical Malpractice Compensation in New York

Medical malpractice can cause many losses, which include medical costs, lost wages and non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering. A reputable New York attorney can help you understand your rights to a fair settlement.

The first step is to determine if you sustained injuries as a result of medical error. Then you can proceed with an action for malpractice.

Medical expenses

The cost of medical care to treat injuries is the most obvious. This type of damage has an amount set by law of the state that is established in the liability insurance policy of a health provider. Some states also create injured patient compensation funds to cover the cost of litigation and to drive down liability premiums for providers.

Victims are entitled to compensation in addition to medical expenses if the negligence is deemed to be the cause. These are known as economic or special damages. They cover the cost of any medical services (past and in the future) which are required to treat the injury that resulted from the negligence, as well the loss of income due to not being able to work due to the injury.

In medical malpractice cases, pain and suffering damages are also common. This type of damage is a subjective one and can vary dramatically between different claimants. It includes any physical or emotional pain, and other non-physical effects that result from the malpractice. For example, a plaintiff could be compensated for a doctor's mistake that caused her to miss an important cancer screening appointment.

Finally, punitive damages are also a possibility in certain situations. These are meant to punish the doctor for particularly indecent behavior, for example, leaving a sponge inside the body of a patient after surgery.

Suffering and pain

Pain and suffering are an example of non-economic loss in medical malpractice cases. The damages are for mental and physical trauma victims suffered due to the medical professional's negligence. The symptoms may be minor such as anxiety or discomfort or more serious, such as loss of enjoyment in life as well as depression, embarrassment anxiety, and sleep disorders.

It's difficult to put the value of pain and suffering, so jury instructions usually leave the decision to jurors to use their own judgment knowledge, background, and experience in determining what is fair and reasonable. The amounts that are awarded in malpractice lawsuits can vary.

Your medical malpractice attorney can help you prove the severity of your suffering using demonstrative evidence. Images, Xrays, models, home movies, diagrams, and sketches can help a jury determine the extent of your injuries and understand how they affect your daily routine.

If negligence by a doctor led to the death of a victim, the survivors can seek compensation through the wrongful death lawsuit or through survival statutes. Wrongful death laws typically allow a deceased victim's spouse and children to collect the same amount of compensation as they would've received had the patient survived. In most cases, however the amount the victim is allowed to receive is determined by a state's damage caps for pain and suffering. It is important to find a skilled medical malpractice lawyer by your side in order to ensure you receive the compensation you're entitled to.

Loss of wages

You can recover your lost wages in the event that you miss work due to medical error. This amount includes your base salary plus bonuses, commissions, and employment benefits. It also includes any pay raises or increases in pay. Your lawyer will go through your pay stubs and previous pay statements to determine your average earnings before the injury, and then subtract out your missed work to arrive at the total loss of earnings. Your lawyer can help you calculate your future loss of income through a current value calculation. This is a complicated financial analysis that examines the effects of your injuries on your capacity to work in the future, and it's generally performed by a specialist hired by your attorney.

You can also recover non-economic damages, like suffering and pain resulted from the malpractice. The jury will decide on the appropriate amount of compensation for these damages, and it could differ from case to circumstance. Some states do have a cap on these damages, and have been struck down as unconstitutional in several cases.

Settlements of seven figures are generally associated with serious permanent injuries or wrongful death resulting from extreme healthcare negligence. For example, surgical mistakes leading to amputations, obstetric errors leading to infant brain damage and maternal deaths, and anesthesia errors that cause comas could all be the reason for high-value settlements. Punitive damages, which are designed to punish bad behaviour are also available in certain circumstances.

Damages to future medical treatment

In a case of medical negligence the plaintiff may pursue economic or non-economic damages. The first is based upon calculable losses, such as the future or past medical expenses. The latter is more difficult to quantify, which includes suffering and loss of enjoyment of life. In a medical negligence lawsuit the jury has to examine expert testimony to determine these types losses.

It is fairly easy to establish past medical expenses by submitting actual bills that were sent to the person injured by their health care providers. For future expenses, the attorney for the plaintiff will present medical evidence that shows what treatments are likely to be required in the future and what the treatment will cost currently. The amount of future medical treatment needed could be affected by the victim's age at the time of the malpractice.

The ability to prove damages for future lost wages is possible by demonstrating how the injury has affected the patient's future earning capacity and ability to work. This can be supported by expert testimony or looking at similar cases from the past.

Pain and suffering is a broad word that describes the mental and physical discomfort and suffering which patients suffer because of medical negligence. This type of damages is typically based on the testimony of the victim and other witnesses, as well as evidence such as photographs, videotapes and written reports.