Medical Malpractice Law

Medical mistakes can occur even with the best training or a pledge to not causing harm to others. If medical errors occur, the consequences for patients could be devastating.

Malpractice law is a branch of tort law that focuses on professional negligence. A malpractice case must meet four basic requirements:

Malpractice claims in the United States are typically filed in state trial courts. Extensive legal tools, including depositions under oath, are utilized to gather evidence to support the case.

Duty of care

When you have the relationship of a doctor-patient, a doctor has a responsibility of caring to you. This is true whether the doctor is treating you in a hospital, or in your home. There are however circumstances where doctors can be liable for malpractice even without the existence of a doctor-patient relationship.

A person who is obligated to perform a duty to care must behave in a manner that an ordinary person would under the circumstances. For example, a motorist has a duty to drive with care and not cause injury to others on the road. If the driver does not adhere to this obligation and causes an accident, he/she could be held responsible for any injuries resulting from the accident.

Doctors have a duty of taking care of their patients at all times. This is true even when a doctor is not your official physician for instance, when you ask a doctor to give you advice in an elevator or in a restaurant. However, this obligation to be a good neighbor is often restricted by Good Samaritan laws.

Medical professionals are also required to take care to inform their patients of the dangers associated with certain procedures and treatments. If they fail to do so, it is a breach of the duty of care of a doctor. A doctor can also breach their duty of care if they provide you a medication known to interact with other medications that you are taking.

Breach of duty

In general, doctors are under an obligation to their patients to provide their patients with medical treatment that is consistent with accepted standards of practice. This standard is set by the laws of the present and standards developed by medical associations. If a doctor fails to fulfill this obligation, they are acting negligently. A malpractice lawyer will review the evidence and determine if there was a breach of the standard of care.

A doctor could be in violation of their duty of care in a variety of ways. It's not about just whether a doctor did something that an average person wouldn't do in the same situation as well as things they ought to have done, or didn't do. It is often necessary to have expert witness testimony to determine what the accepted medical standard of care would be.

A doctor may have violated their obligation if they prescribe the medication that is dangerously incompatible with another drug. This is a common mistake which can have severe consequences for your health.

However, merely showing that a breach of duty occurred is not enough to prove malpractice. You must establish a direct connection between the doctor's negligence and your injury or illness to claim damages. This is referred to as causation. It can be a difficult connection to make in certain cases, but a skilled malpractice lawyer will work hard to discover the evidence required to establish the connection.

Causation

A malpractice lawsuit case only has validity if the plaintiff can prove that the defendant's negligent actions caused the losses and injuries. Expert testimony is required to establish medical negligence. This requires proving that there was a relationship between the patient and the provider and that the provider's conduct violated the acceptable standard. It is important that the victim's injuries must be directly related to the act or omission that violated the standard of medical care. This is known as causality or the proximate cause.

When proving legal malpractice it is essential to prove that the negligence of the attorney had significant negative ramifications for you. You must be able show that the costs of a lawsuit are greater than your losses. The plaintiff has to also prove that negligence caused tangible and quantifiable damages.

Most malpractice cases go through discovery that includes oral depositions. Your lawyer can represent your interests in these depositions. They will ask questions to experts for defense to challenge their findings, and to prove that the evidence backs the allegations. It is imperative to have a seasoned medical malpractice attorney to represent you because the four elements of malpractice, such as breach, duty the duty, causation and injury is complicated and time-consuming. Your lawyer knows each step in the process and will assist you fulfill all requirements. The more steps you can complete, the greater your chances of winning.

Damages

The amount of compensation a patient receives in a medical malpractice case is based on the extent of their injury and the amount of money they need to cover medical expenses and income loss or other financial losses. In certain cases there are punitive damages that can be awarded to the plaintiff in retaliation for the malpractice of the doctor. However, they are not common since doctors must have acted with intent or recklessness to be awarded punitive damages.

The law requires that a person alleging medical malpractice prove four elements or legal requirements: (1) there was an obligation of care on the part of the doctor; (2) the doctor did not fulfill this duty when he or she departed from the prevailing standards of practice; (3) as a result of the doctor's breach the victim was injured and (4) the injury is quantifiable in terms of an amount in dollars. The person who suffered the injury must present a lawsuit within the statute of limitations in effect which differs from state to state.

The law recognizes the fact that some medical malpractice claims can be complex and expensive to resolve, particularly when they are based on complicated questions like proximate reasons or the possibility of foreseeability. Its aim is to grant victims the redress that they are entitled to, without allowing the filing of frivolous and unjustified lawsuits to cause delays in the courts. It also seeks to reduce costs by requiring that all defendants share responsibility for a claim's success (joint and multiple responsibility) while limiting the amount a plaintiff could recover if other defendants lack funds to pay ("damage caps) and prohibiting doctors from practicing defensive medicine, which includes changing their treatment plans in response to the danger of malpractice lawsuits.