Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice Suits

Medical malpractice suits are a special type of personal injury case that a patient can bring against her doctor, health care professionl(s) or the hospital that treated her. Like most personal injury cases, medical malpractice suits are a form of tort cases. This means each state has its own specific laws about how to prove medical malpractice and about what you are entitled to recover. Still, while the laws vary slightly by state, there are many commonalities as far as what you must do to be successful in medical malpractice suits.

Proving Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice is essentially a negligence tort. This means you must prove that your doctor breached a duty of care and was negligent. To prove your doctor was negligent you must:

Demonstrate that the care he provided fell below the level of care that a reasonable doctor would have provided

Proving this often requires expert witnesses. You will need other doctors to testify that what your doctor did was unreasonably reckless or poor care. Likewise, if you are suing a hospital, you will need to prove that the policies and level of care the hospital provided was below the type of care that any reasonable hospital would have provided.

You also need to prove that the doctor's negligence was the direct or proximate cause of your injuries. In other words, what the doctor did must have actually hurt you in some way.

Recovering Damages

If you can successfully prove your case, you may be entitled to recover damages for:

Medical bills: the cost you incurred to treat any damages the doctor caused
Lost wages: the amount of money you missed out on as a result of the fact that your injuries caused you to miss work
Pain and suffering: this is considered non-compensatory damages since you didn't actually miss out on any money here. The damages are designed to compensate you for an intangible amount of pain and suffering you experienced
Emotional distress: this too is non-economic or non-compensatory
Punitive damages: some states permit punitive damages while others forbid them. In states where they are allowed, you generally must demonstrate that the doctor was grossly negligent, not merely careless.

Some states have imposed limits on your right to recover damages. For example, in California, you are permitted to recover only up to $250,000 in non-economic damages.

Getting Help

If you have been the victim of a doctors negligence and are considering medical malpractice suits, you should consult with an experienced medical malpractice attorney as soon as possible. Your attorney can provide you with help in collecting the evidence you need to prove your doctor was negligent and can help make your case to a jury so you can collect the damages you deserve.

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