What is Medical Malpractice Lawsuits? and Requirements for Medical Malpractice Cases?

Medical malpractice is when a sufferer is wrecked by a medical expert. To have a medical negligence claim, this professional fails to completely perform his or her medical duties. If this occurs, you will want to find a lawyer. Medical malpractice rules vary by the state and sometimes you need to notify the doctor ahead of bringing your lawsuit. However, there are some general categories of rules that will apply to many medical malpractice cases. Do I have a medical malpractice case? How long does medical malpractice case take? For you to prove medical malpractice, you need to show all of these items.

What is Medical Malpractice Lawsuits? and Requirements for a Medical Malpractice Cases?

• A Patient-Doctor Relationship: 

You need to show that you had a patient-doctor relationship with the doctor you are suing. This means that the physician agreed to be hired and you hired the physician. You aren’t able to sue a physician who you overheard give some bad advice at a cocktail party. If the doctor was treating, you then it should be easy to prove that this relationship existed. Questions of this relationship happen when a consulting physician worked on your case but may have not treated you directly.

• The Physician Was Negligent: 

If you were unhappy with the treatment or the results, this doesn’t mean that you can sue your doctor for medical malpractice. The physician needs to be negligent in connection with treatment or diagnosis. To sue, you need to be able to have proof that the doctor caused you to harm where a competent doctor under the same types of circumstances wouldn’t have. The care of your doctor isn’t required to be the best, but instead just careful and reasonably skillful. Whether or not this is true is often the main point of a medical malpractice claim. Almost every state requires that the patient have medical experts to show the appropriate standard of care and how the physician you are suing deviated from this care. 

• A Physician’s Negligence Caused Your Injury: 

Since many cases involve patients already injured or sick it becomes a question of whether or not it was the doctor that caused the harm and whether he or she was negligent or not. For example, if someone dies after lung cancer treatment and the doctor did do something negligent, it might be hard to prove that the negligence was the cause of death, rather than the lung cancer itself. The patient needs to show that it was more likely than not or that it was negligence that caused the injury. This also means that patients need medical experts to testify. 

• The Injury Also Led to Specific Damages: 

Even if a physician was negligent and didn’t perform the standard of care, you aren’t able to sue if you didn’t suffer actual harm. Examples you can sue for include mental anguish, extra medical bills, lost earnings or lost work, and physical pain. There are certain kinds of damages you can sue for in medical malpractice cases. 

General damages refer to suffering but don’t have a definite price, such as loss of enjoyment in life or loss of earning capacity in the future. Special damages are more quantitative expenses, such as past missed work and medical bills. Punitive damages are awarded if the doctor knows that he or she was behaving in a harmful manner. For example, if the surgeon leaves a sponge in a body cavity to have a reason for a second surgery. 

Common Types of Medical Malpractice

Several different situations can lead to medical malpractice. Common causes of malpractice include failing to tell a patient a prescribed medication that could head to heart failure or leaving a sponge in a patient during surgery. Many claims will fall into three different categories.

• Failure to Diagnose: 

Your doctor could be considered negligent if a competent physician would have discovered your illness or had a different diagnosis, which would have led to a better outcome. 

• Improper Treatment: 

If the doctor treats a patient in ways that other competent doctors would not then the patient could have a claim. This is also true if the doctor does choose the right course of treatment but does not administer it correctly. 

• Failure to Warn of Known Risk: 

Every physician must warn you of the known risk of treatment or procedures. If you were not properly warned of the risks and would not have elected to go through with the treatment or procedure if you were, then the doctor could be sued for medical malpractice if you are injured during the procedure. 

Special Requirements for Medical Malpractice Cases

There are many different procedures and rules for medical malpractice cases. It’s important to follow these rules carefully to know if you do have a case. 

• Cases Need to Be Brought Soon after Injury: 

You don’t have a lot of time to sue for medical malpractice and oftentimes it’s between six months to two years. If the case is not filed within the specific timeline, then the court dismisses the case, regardless of the facts. It can also depend on when the clock starts ticking. In some areas, it starts when the medical negligence act happened and in others, it begins when the patient should have found out about the injury. 

• Medical Malpractice Review Panels: 

You may be required to submit your claim to a malpractice review panel. This panel of experts hears arguments, reviews expert testimony and evidence, and then decides if malpractice has happened. The panel decision doesn’t replace the lawsuit and the panel doesn’t award damages but it’s one hoop to go through before going to court. The finding of the panel can also be presented in court. The court also relies on the panel’s findings to throw out a case before it gets to trial if the panel finds no medical malpractice. 

• Special Notice Requirements: 

You may be required to give the doctor notice of the claim before you file anything else. 

• Expert Testimony: 

Expert testimony and options are an important part of any medical malpractice case. A qualified expert will typically be required at trial. Usually, expert testimony is also required at the review panel. Rules vary as to what makes a person qualified to provide this expert testimony, but it will need to be someone with experience in the field. In some limited circumstances, expert testimony won’t be required. For example, it’s not usually required in cases where surgical equipment is left inside a patient during surgery. 

• Limit on Damages: 

Many states cap the amount of money you can get for a medical malpractice lawsuit.