Medical malpractice is more common than you think, affecting countless people every year. We don’t have perfectly reliable figures for how often it happens, in part because some people experience medical malpractice without ever recognizing it or taking action.
Why is this the case? And what does a “typical” medical malpractice claim look like?
A Primer on Medical Malpractice
Medical malpractice is a type of negligence that occurs in a medical or healthcare setting. Essentially, it means that a doctor, a nurse, or a similarly qualified professional has acted or neglected to act in a way that causes unnecessary, foreseeable harm. That’s a complicated sentence, but all of those elements are necessary to fully understand what medical malpractice encapsulates.
Note that doctors and nurses don’t have unlimited liability. They aren’t responsible for every type of harm you experience under their care. They also aren’t responsible for damages beyond what they caused via negligence. Instead, these medical professionals are typically liable for damages directly related to harm that arose as a result of their negligent practice.
Also, medical malpractice typically uses the “reasonable person” standard. In other words, doctors and nurses are judged based on what a reasonable doctor or nurse would have done in a similar situation. If a reasonable doctor would have also diagnosed you incorrectly, the original incorrect diagnosis is not medical malpractice.
Types of Medical Malpractice
These are some of the most typical types of medical malpractice claims:
- Diagnosis issues. Certain diagnosis issues can be medical malpractice. For example, if the doctor misdiagnosed you with a disease and it caused you harm, you can sue them for malpractice. If a doctor had enough information to diagnose you with a disease and they didn’t, you can also sue for malpractice.
- Medication errors. Medication errors may also qualify as medical malpractice under certain circumstances. For example, if you were prescribed a wrong medication or a medication that conflicts with what you were already taking, you may have a legal cause of action.
- Surgical errors. There are many ways a surgery can go wrong. If the surgeon operates on the wrong part of your body or if they leave a foreign body behind, you may be able to sue them for malpractice. In fact, there are many mistakes and errors during surgery that might prompt you to file a lawsuit.
- Failure to treat. You may also have a medical malpractice case if a medical provider fails to treat your illness or injury in a reasonable way.
- Unnecessary treatments. Similarly, you can sue a medical provider if they pressure you to accept treatments that are unnecessary. For example, if you’re practically forced to undergo a surgery that you didn’t truly need, you can recover those damages.
- Birth injuries. Negligence during delivery is also a form of medical malpractice. If your baby suffered a birth injury, or if your birth was unnecessarily traumatic, you might be able to bring a medical malpractice claim against your provider.
Proving Medical Malpractice
Providing medical malpractice ranges from easy to difficult, depending on the circumstances. You must be able to show what the medical provider did, how those actions or inactions caused your harm, and the extent of your damages. Oftentimes, lawyers work with other medical experts to provide expert testimony and invalidate the actions of the defendant. However, there are multiple viable approaches.
The Typical Process in a Medical Malpractice Case
A typical medical malpractice case goes something like this:
- Filing a claim. Everything starts with filing a claim. Together with your lawyer, you’ll summarize what happened to you and file a formal legal complaint to get the legal process moving.
- Discovery and exchange. After that initial claim is filed, you, the plaintiff, and the defendant will formally exchange information in the discovery process. The more evidence you can supply, the better.
- Settlement negotiations. The overwhelming majority of medical malpractice cases are settled out of court. There are many reasons for this, including the fact that trial costs are severe for both the plaintiff and the defendant. Negotiating is also much faster and less stressful for both parties. In any case, after discovery, teams of lawyers will likely negotiate on behalf of both the defendant and plaintiff to try and reach a mutually agreeable resolution.
- Trial. If negotiations fail, the parties go to trial as a last resort. Each side will have the opportunity to present their case, and a judge or jury will decide the outcome.
Medical malpractice claims vary wildly in terms of severity, nature, and outcome. If you have even a slight suspicion that you’ve been the victim of medical malpractice, your best course of action is to contact a medical malpractice attorney as soon as possible.
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