How An Attorney Can Help You With A Medical Malpractice Case

What is “medical malpractice”?

Medical malpractice can occur when a doctor’s or hospital’s or other medical professional’s treatment provided to you falls below the accepted standard of practice in the medical community and causes harm to you. The treatment can be an action taken by a doctor or can be something the doctor failed to do. In either case, that action or omission must have caused injury or death.

What should I do if I have been a victim of malpractice?

If you believe you have been injured by something a doctor did or failed to do, you need to call a personal injury attorney like “Attorney Big Al” who specializes in medical malpractice.

What do doctors think of malpractice lawsuits?

Physicians tend to view malpractice cases as attacks that demand retaliation. They often do not want to talk to patients and apologize for an error they made. Instead, they hire defense attorneys who will try to get the case dismissed or belittle the person making the claim.

Are there too many malpractice lawsuits?

No. Writing in the Boston Globe Magazine, Dr. Darshak Sanghavi wrote that, “Contrary to many doctors’ beliefs, there is no epidemic of frivolous lawsuits. In 2006, the New England Journal of Medicine published an analysis of 1,452 randomly selected malpractice cases from around the country. It came as a surprise to most readers that 97 percent involved a medical injury, while almost two-thirds involved a mistake on the part of health care professionals. Looking at case outcomes, the researchers concluded that although the malpractice system is not perfect, it “performs reasonably well.” In fact, when doctors make an actual mistake, the system is slightly biased in their favor.”
https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2013/01/27/medical-malpractice-why-hard-for-doctors-apologize/c65KIUZraXekMZ8SHlMsQM/story.html

Can a patient handle a malpractice suit by himself or herself?

In most cases, no. Often the patient can’t even get his or her own medical records from a hospital or doctor’s office and have an independent physician review them. In fact, the only way for a patient to obtain such a case review is by having a personal injury lawyer file a malpractice claim.

How common are medical malpractice lawsuits in the U.S.?

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.

How long do I have to file a medical malpractice claim?

Statutes of limitation—deadlines by which a 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 lawsuit is filed. Your local “Attorney Big Al” team knows the requirements for your state.

Call your local “Attorney Big Al” at 1-800-HURT-123 for a free consultation today.