Medical Malpractice

A recent Harvard University Study found that most victims of medical malpractice never make a claim. Many patients are never even aware that a doctor or hospital's mistake caused their injury or the death of their loved one.

Medical malpractice claims are usually the only way that a patient can find out if a medical error was made in their case. Most states have enacted laws that keep all hospital investigations secret and the patient is not even told if the hospital's internal peer review investigation finds that a doctor was negligent or incompetent. The insurance industry and the medical community have been restricting patients' rights to know about medical negligence and limiting patients' rights to compensation under the false pretense of "tort reform". They claim that high medical malpractice insurance rates are caused by frivolous malpractice lawsuits. This is false. There are very few frivolous malpractice lawsuits because all malpractice cases are very expensive to bring and judges and juries are very careful to screen out and dismiss cases against doctors where there is no clear negligence.

A medical negligence case has two basic legal requirements. First, we must show that the medical provider gave medical care that was below the reasonable standard of care for a medical professional in that field. Second, we have to show that the medical provider's failure to meet the reasonable standard of care caused the injury of death to the patient. We prove these two elements through the testimony of another doctor in the same field of medicine. There are many doctors who care deeply about keeping standards up in their profession and some of these doctors are willing to testify for injured patients against other doctors. If there is a clear case of malpractice we can almost always find a doctor that will help us and testify for the malpractice victim against another doctor.

A surgery or other medical treatment that results in a bad outcome with unexpected serious injury or death to the patient is not always a malpractice case. Sometimes even if the medical providers meet all the reasonable standards of care a patient can suffer serious or fatal side effects of the medical procedure. The medical providers are not liable to pay damages for a bad outcome unless they committed negligent acts that caused or contributed to the bad outcome. Sometimes the negligent conduct is failing to advise the patient of the possibility of one of these bad outcomes. This is called failing to obtain "informed consent" of the patient to undergo the procedure and accept the risks of one of these bad outcomes. Almost all medical procedures or treatments have at least some risk of a bad outcome. Therefore, it is important to speak with a law firm experienced in these cases to evaluate such factors. Our firm had been handling these cases for many years and we have full time medical personnel in our office so that we can fully and properly investigate your case.

Insurance companies and medical providers rarely settle even very good cases without the filing of a lawsuit and aggressive litigation. Therefore, it is important to have an experienced trial lawyer to represent you in your claim. Our firm has years of experience handling medical negligence litigation and we would be happy to give you a free opinion concerning your claim and to represent you for a reasonable percentage of the recovery if we agree to represent you.

Please call 800-748-7115 or email or so that we may evaluate your medical malpractice case today.