Medical Malpractice Attorneys

Medical professionals must adhere to an exacting standard of care for their patients. If a health-care provider fails to adhere to this standard and that failure causes injuries or complications for the patient, there may be grounds for a malpractice claim.

A successful malpractice lawsuit can help pay for medical expenses, reimburse lost wages and acknowledge the pain and suffering. However, medical malpractice claims can be complicated.

Undiagnosed

Medical malpractice lawsuits involving misdiagnosis are quite common. This type of claim typically involves a medical professional wrongly diagnosing a patient suffering from an injury or illness. For instance, a doctor might diagnose a patient as having pneumonia when in reality the patient has a staph infection. A misdiagnosis can have serious consequences, including death.

According to medical malpractice insurers medical malpractice insurers, diagnosis-related malpractice claims account for 9 percent (obstetrics) and 61 percent (pediatrics) of their total claims. However medical malpractice claims data is not comprehensive and could be biased toward more severe mistakes. Claimants are typically dismissed or lapsed without payment and a lot of good mistakes do not result in an action for malpractice.

A plaintiff must demonstrate, in order to win a case for medical malpractice, that the doctor did not follow the standard of care when diagnosing the condition. The lawyer for the plaintiff must demonstrate that the doctor's error directly triggered an injury.

The litigation process in medical malpractice lawsuits is time-consuming, costly and emotionally intense. Although the majority of medical malpractice cases settle without trial, the attorneys for both parties and expert witnesses must spend time and money on negotiations, discovery, and trial preparation. In addition, physicians are often forced to pay the malpractice insurance premiums as the claims process progresses. These expenses have led some to advocate for tort reform which would reduce the cost and facilitate faster settlements.

Errors of Treatment

When you visit a physician or hospital to receive treatment, you are expected to receive medical care that is consistent with the established practices in your community. This includes a proper diagnosis, a reasonable treatment plan and appropriate follow-up to ensure that your health improves. However, errors made by nurses, doctors and other medical personnel can be severe and cause permanent injury or even death.

These errors can take on a variety of forms. For instance an employee of a hospital could misread the patient's chart and give the wrong medication. This kind of error is common in emergency rooms, where staff are under pressure and their time is limited. It can also happen if an ER doctor is treating a condition that is not within his or her area of expertise.

Other types of errors comprise prescribing the wrong medication or giving patients a wrong dosage that results in injuries. These errors can be committed by doctors, pharmacists, nurse practitioners, physician's assistants and optometrists. These errors may also include the failure to recommend or prescribe the necessary follow-up treatment to fix the mistake.

Medication mistakes can cause numerous serious injuries. Heart patients who are taking a blood thinner could cause a serious bleeding disorder. It could also cause stroke. If you've suffered an injury or lost a loved one to a medical mistake it is essential to consult with an experienced New York medical malpractice lawyer to determine if you are able to seek compensation.

Negligence

When medical professionals or doctors do not adhere to accepted standards of care, they could be liable for carelessness. This can happen in a variety of places, such as hospitals, therapy clinics, doctor's offices, and nursing homes. If a doctor fails to adhere to these standards and the patient suffers lasting harm it could be a requirement to pay compensation for that harm.

To prevail in a malpractice case, the injured party must prove that the physician's breach of professional duty caused his or her injuries. This is called causation and is a vital part of the legal requirement. The breach must be the direct cause of the injury, and medical malpractice lawyers the damage must be quantifiable.

In the case of medical negligence, a plaintiff's lawyer must also convince the juror that it is more likely than not that the physician's actions or inactions contributed to the damages sought. This is a challenging task since people aren't always in a clear mind or are in awe of what they believe that the other side will say.

It is also essential that the lawyer has a strong knowledge of the medical profession and the way it functions. This knowledge can help to establish that the breach of professional duty was a direct cause of the patient's injuries. Medical malpractice cases can be filed in Federal or state courts, and they often require expert witnesses to define the standard of medical care that was not met.

Punitive Damages

We are often conditioned to believe that we can trust medical professionals to treat us with expertise and care. But mistakes can be serious and cause permanent injuries or even death. If these mistakes result in an unjust death, Medical malpractice lawyers the family members of the victims could be entitled to compensation for the loss they've suffered.

These cases could involve claims against hospitals, doctors nurses, physical therapists, pharmacists, diagnostic imaging technicians, and even the manufacturers of medical equipment. Because many parties could be accountable, it's often advisable for victims to bring claims against them all and work with their New York medical malpractice lawyers to determine which persons or companies need to be sued.

Punitive damages seek to penalize the defendant for their conduct and discourage them from repeating the same behavior in the future. Unlike compensatory damages, which are designed to address specific damages they can be applied to an entire class of people and they are typically reserved for the most serious of violations.

In a case of medical malpractice, the first category of damages is reimbursement for financial losses. This includes medical costs and lost wages. Your New York medical malpractice lawyer can assist you in determining the amount of your loss by providing an expert opinion on what constitutes a breach of the standard of care within the specific area of your case as well as in the specialty. This is a crucial step because, without the evidence to support your claim it could be dismissed during the initial hearing.