Medical Lawyer Blog

In my opinion, the only time malpractice suits should be for anything more than actual damages is when they stem from gross negligence or incompetence. A doctor sews a surgical instrument up in a patient, his a** is twisting in the wind.

Medicine is not a perfect science. Patients respond differently to the same treatments; doctors don’t always have all of the relevant information; decisions sometimes have to be made quickly without the aid of all possible diagnostic tests. Plus it is often difficult or impossible to know who will have what side effects.

absolutely.

When they are asking me to negotiate for a certain amount for a out of court settlement what is the practical way to go through the process. What are the chances that I would be getting more or less than the settlement amount in court in pennsylvania? Also am I limited to the amount of the physician’s malpractice insurance?

This is a question to discuss with your lawyer. What does he/she say?

A lot has to do with the quality of the case. How much are they offering you and what might you get in a trial?

Remember you could lose in court.

In California, I know the statute of limitations for Medical Malpractice is 1 year from the date of discovery of injury. I also know that the doctor must be notified 3 months in advance of the filing of the lawsuit.

What happens if the plaintiff finds a lawyer 2 months before the statute of limitations runs? How can they give 3 months notice to the doctor, and still file within 1 year?

They will likely be unable to file the claim. They should have presented notice to the doctor, even if they didn’t have a lawyer yet.

If you find a list of the yearly cost of malpractice of every state in the U.S., please copy it onto your answer. If not, please tell me the cost of it yearly in these states:
Pennsylvania
Virginia
West Virginia
Rhode Island
Massachusetts

Thanks!

In each of those states, for a vetrinarian, it’s about $250 a year.

For all the others, it will depend on: which hospitals they have admitting priveleges to, the retroactive date on the policy, the limit of coverage, the type of medicine practiced, the type of procedures they do, the number of hours worked, the proximity to major city hospitals, How long they’ve practiced medicine, the prior claims history, and I’m probably forgetting a few other things. It can be anywhere from $500 for new dentists, to six figures for obstetricians and cardiac surgeons.

What is the procedure for filing for medical malpractice?
Also what is the court process?
This is for a school assignment. I just need to know the court process.

Let me start by saying, do not do this yourself if that’s what you’re thinking. If you don’t know what you’re doing your case will almost certainly get dismissed. It’s not as simple as filling out some paperwork and explaining what the doctor did wrong. I wouldn’t even trust an attorney with no medical malpractice experience with this case. It takes seven years of college and at least a few years of tort litigation experience to be successful. The court will probably go easy on you if you do the case pro se (represented by yourself), but they won’t bend over backwards to accommodate your inexperience and lack of knowledge. That said, it would probably go something like this (keep in mind this is a simplified version of it and I’m probably forgetting few things too):

You would start by choosing a venue. Do you want to sue in state or federal court? Do you qualify to sue in federal court? Also, check the statute of limitations in the state where the incident occurred and make sure it has not tolled.

Next you would open the case by filing a complaint for medical malpractice and serving it upon the defendants along with a certificate of service.. Make sure you know the elements of a prima facie case for Medical Malpractice and include them in your complaint or your case will get dismissed. You should also include a request for compensatory and possibly punitive damages and any other appropriate relief. There are probably a few other administrative forms the court will require you to file with the complaint.

You would then await their answer and possibly file a reply. The court will hold various hearings. Next discovery will begin and you need to put your case together. For a medical malpractice case you will almost certainly need to hire an expert witness (which is very expensive). You will need to make appropriate motions, subpoena documents, informally interview key witnesses, perform depositions, draft interrogatories and requests for admission. The defendant will probably file a motion for summary judgment, which you will need to reply to appropriately.

You will probably have to attend a pretrial conference next.

Then the case would go to trial. If you somehow managed to make it to trial, my hat would go off to you. It would probably go to trial if you didn’t screw anything up because the defendant probably won’t be too inclined to settle with someone not represented by an attorney. At a minimum you’ll need to perform voir dire (choose jurors), give an opening statement, direct, cross and recross examine witness, and give a closing argument.

Hi,

I believe that I had a surgery on my legs that was not necessary. Now my legs hurt much worse than before, are numb all over, and hurt severely.

How can I go about initiating a malpractice lawsuit? I think I only needed orthopedics before not surgery but the doctor didn’t perform enough diagnosis work.

Step 1: Find a lawyer who specializes in medical malpractice. Your state bar has a lawyer referral service. Use it.

Step 2: Contact that lawyer for an initial consultation, usually free.

Step 3: Listen.

Step 4: Act on the information you learned during the consultation.

There is no other successful way to initiate a Medical Malpractice lawsuit.

Doctors premiums rates are going sky-high for malpractice insurance. Some say it is due to the increase in frivilous lawsuits and others that the insurers invested poorly. Some doctors are working without insuracne and other are longer performing the high-risk surguries that may save your life. Think of youself as the patient – what should be done?

My opinion – the EASIEST, FASTEST solution would be making punititve damage awards EXEMPT from attorny contingencies.

Doctors don’t HAVE to be at fault, especially obstetritions. From PERSONAL experience with med mal claims, the nightmare is always a DEAD BABY. Juries ALWAYS find against the doctor with a dead baby, REGARDLESS of fault. Insurance companies don’t even try to fight those claims, they just offer out the policy limits, because a jury will ALWAYS side against the doctor.

We are looking for and attorney who can take on a big hospital. they are at fault for medical negligence and malpractice.

You want to contact a personal injury attorney who also specializes in Medical Malpractice. I would find the best one I could. You can get find a really good one by asking around or checking on the internet. You definitely want someone with a lot of experience in this field. Almost all personal injury lawyers have websites where they list cases they have won, etc. Most PI attorneys will take your case on contingency. All the "good" ones do. They only take cases they are sure they will win. And big hospitals have very deep pockets. That is, unless your state has caps or limits on these types of cases. If you were in Oregon, I could tell you the absolutely number one there, as I used to work for him. If not, then I would contact an organization called The Inner Circle of Advocates. Only the top and best 100 personal injury attorneys in the US are invited to join.

Hope this helps.

PS And contrary to what the guy below me says about it being hard to sue a hospital or doctor, that is absolutely not true. Just look at the hundreds of HUGE awards in the first source listed below. The only problem is that because of the amount personal injury lawyers make, all lawyers want to do this type of work, and most of them are not very good at it. That guy must be a doctor or work for a hospital. It is relatively easy to win big verdicts for medical malpractice, because they screwed up!

How much does Medical Malpractice go for in Virginia when in a lawsuit with the Hospital?

Here you go:
http://www.expertlaw.com/library/malpractice_by_state/Virginia.html

What Is Medical Malpractice

Medical Malpractice, sometimes referred to as medical negligence, occurs when a health care provider violates the governing standard of care when providing treatment to a patient, causing the patient to suffer an injury. Medical malpractice can result from an action taken by the medical practitioner, or by the failure to take a medically appropriate action. Examples of medical malpractice include:

* Misdiagnosis of, or failure to diagnose , a disease or medical condition;
* Failure to provide appropriate treatment for a medical condition;
* Unreasonable delay in treating a diagnosed medical condition;

Medical malpractice actions can be brought by the injured patient against any responsible licensed health care provider, including doctors, counselors, psychologists and psychotherapists.
Limits on Malpractice Damages

Virginia caps damages in medical malpractice cases to $1.5 million, increased by $50,000.00 per year from 2001 to 2006, and by $75,000.00 per year for 2007 and 2008.

My father will be seeing an optometrist who will be doing his cataract surgery and he wants me to check and see if I can find out over the internet if he has ever been successfully sued for Medical Malpractice. He is nervous about anyone doing surgery on his eyes. Thank you for your help!

Most state medical boards have a website where you can find this information. Try looking here to find your local state medical board’s website: http://www.docboard.org/docfinder.html