If you’ve fallen victim to substandard medical care, you likely have a lot of questions. This is a good thing; medical malpractice is a complex area of the law, and untangling the uncertainties around your case will help you to decide on the best course of action for you.
Here, we’ve looked at four of the crucial considerations for anyone considering a medical negligence lawsuit.
In order for medical malpractice to occur, a doctor-patient relationship must exist at the time of the alleged negligence.
Say, for example, you seek medical advice from a physician, but decide against allowing the doctor himself to carry out the recommended course of treatment. Instead, you decide to use their advice to design and self-administer your own treatment plan. A court would likely find that no doctor-patient relationship exists in this case, and you would not be entitled to any compensation from the advising physician.
However, the rules in this area aren’t written in black and white. If you’re not sure how they’ll apply in your situation, you should schedule a free initial consultation with one of the experienced medical malpractice attorneys at the Cochran Firm in Philadelphia. We’ll be able to tell you whether negligence may have played a role in your case and advise you on the best strategy moving forward.
“Standard of care” is the yardstick used to determine whether a given set of circumstances surrounding medical treatment amounts to negligence. It refers to the actions a reasonable medical professional with appropriate knowledge and skills for the case in question would have taken in your situation.
When discussing standard of care, the specialty of the doctor or nurse in question is a crucial consideration, as is the extent of their experience in the field. For example, a general physician would not be expected to have the same level of expertise around brain injuries as a neurosurgeon.
Standards of care are highly technical, and they vary widely from case to case. For this reason, testimony from independent experts is frequently necessary to prove deviations from standards of care in these cases. Our medical malpractice attorneys have connections with the best medical professionals in the Philadelphia area, so our firm is well-positioned to build strong arguments in these situations, even when things get complicated.
The previous two questions deal with the establishment of negligence, but this isn’t sufficient for a medical malpractice claim to succeed. You must also be able to show that the negligence caused you some form of real, compensable damage.
Damages can be economic (medical bills, lost wages, other expenses) or noneconomic (physical pain, emotional suffering). However, you will not be entitled to compensation from a healthcare provider simply because they made a mistake. Even if the care you received was grossly negligent, you won’t be able to claim damages unless an error hurt you in some way.
It’s worth noting that plaintiffs in some cases get additional compensation through punitive damages. Rather than compensating you for some loss you’ve suffered, these damages punish the defendant for grossly negligent or malicious conduct.
However, because the standard for the award of punitive damages is so high, they’re only awarded in a minority of cases. Additionally, the law in Pennsylvania caps the amount of punitive damages recoverable in medical negligence cases. Generally, you won’t be able to recover more than three times the amount of your compensatory damages as punitive damages (unless the judge in your case decides to waive the cap, which can happen if the healthcare provider’s conduct was intentional rather than merely negligent).
This final question refers to the legal concept of causation. Unless the conduct of your doctor, nurse, or healthcare facility directly causes your damages, you will not be entitled to compensation.
This might sound straightforward, but it is frequently the most complex part of a medical negligence case. It can be particularly challenging if your case involves the degradation of a pre-existing condition. If you were already sick or injured by the time you went for treatment, it can be very difficult to prove that the treatment was the reason your condition got worse.
For this reason, it’s essential to maintain copies of all your medical records and anything else that may help prove your damages were a result of negligence (such as an injury journal). The input of an independent medical expert can also be very useful when it comes to proving causation.
If you’ve suffered an injury or illness due to medical negligence, you shouldn’t have to suffer in silence. Even if your situation seems hopeless, you always have a chance of securing the compensation you need to get your life back on track if you have top-class legal representation.
Schedule a free case evaluation with one of our experienced medical malpractice attorneys today. You can reach us by filling out our online form or by calling us at 800-969-4400.
