What Is The Role Of Medical Injury Lawyer?

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), medical negligence is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. – right ¾hind heart disease and cancer. In 2012, over $3 billion was spent in medical malpractice payouts, averaging one payout every 43 minutes.

Quite alarming, right?

But there are things that you can do to avoid being an unfortunate victim of these statistics – to be your best health-care advocate.

Legal definition of medical malpractice

There’s lot more to a viable medical malpractice case than merely a mistake, on the part of health care professional or facility. There are different elements that must be in place – and that, when in dispute, must be established through evidence and testimony by the plaintiff and his/her legal team – in order to bring a successful malpractice lawsuit:

a) The existence of a doctor-patient relationship

b) The provision of care (which includes decisions, treatment, and failure to treat) that fell below the accepted medical standard of care (a "breach" of the standard of care that amounts to "medical negligence")

c) A casual connection between the care provider’s medical negligence and the patient’s harm, and

d) Quantifiable harm ("damages") to the patient as a result

Defining medical malpractice means defining these elements hence medical malpractice occurs when a health-care provider deviates from the recognized "standard of care" in the treatment of a patient. The "standard of care" is defined as what a reasonably prudent medical provider would or would not have done under the same or similar circumstances.

How to determine if someone is a victim of medical negligence

A malpractice claim exists if a healthcare provider’s negligence causes injury or damage to a patient. However, experiencing an outcome isn’t always proof of medical negligence. Also, on occasion, health-care providers will inform a patient that the person has received negligent medical care from a previous health-care provider and – presumably in an effort at complete honesty – will sometimes tell a patient that they, themselves, have made a mistake.

What to do if subjected to negligent care

Contacting a seasoned medical injury lawyer should be the first step. A thorough review of the case details – this includes everything from securing pertinent medical records to interview with the patient, family members and friends – should be conducted by the lawyer to determine whether the case is actionable.

Statutes of limitation – deadlines by which a medical drug lawsuit must be filed or be permanently barred – differ from state to state, as do the procedural requirements that must be met before a medical malpractice is filed.

It is important to note, however, that the prosecution of medical drug lawsuits – in addition to having a high likelihood of failure – can be extremely expensive, stressful and time-consuming. It’s estimated that medical errors kill roughly 200,000 patients in the U.S. each year. Yet only 15% of the personal injury lawsuits filed annually involve medical-malpractice claims, and more than 80% of those lawsuits end with no payment whatsoever to the injured patient or their survivors.

Consequently, most experienced medical injury lawyers will not pursue a case unless the injuries and damages documented in the records – after they have been reviewed by an expert in the pertinent specialty – are substantial and justify it.

Referent links

http://medical-malpractice.lawyers.com/do-i-have-a-medical-malpractice-case.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/learnvest/2013/05/16/10-things-you-want-to-know-about-medical-malpractice/#643902652323

At LawFirm-Connect, we try to take the guess work out of determining if your injury is worth of legal action, and if so, we'll help connect you with an expert law firm that specializes in exactly what you need