Common Causes of Malpractice Litigation

malpractice law firm litigation involves a complex procedure. The question of whether or not an error is malpractice based on whether the patient can prove four legal elements such as a professional duty and breach of this duty; injury resulted from the breach and damages that can be quantifiable.

Plaintiffs must also prove these elements through evidence like expert testimony, depositions, and discovery.

Incorrect diagnosis and inability to diagnose

Failure to identify an injury or illness correctly can result in serious complications, or death. Many medical malpractice cases involve incorrect diagnosis. To prove negligence, the patient or their attorney must prove that a competent doctor under similar circumstances and in the same field would not have misdiagnosed the condition.

Misdiagnosis does not always constitute malpractice. Even highly trained and experienced doctors make mistakes. Therefore, the claim of malpractice must be supported by other factors like breach, proximate causation, and actual injury. If a doctor fails to sterilize his equipment prior the time he administers anesthesia, and the patient gets infected because of this, he could be held accountable.

Legal actions claiming malpractice are usually filed in state trial courts, where the alleged error occurred. Federal courts may be able to handle the case in certain circumstances. A case can be brought before a federal court in certain circumstances. For instance it could involve the issue of the statute of limitations or if the parties are of different nationalities. Certain disputes are settled via arbitral arbitration, which is a binding process. This is a non-formal procedure which involves professionals who make the decisions. It is designed to lower expenses, speed up the legal proceedings, and eliminate the risk associated with overly large juries. However, arbitration is not available for malpractice all claims of malpractice.

Wrong Drug Dosage

Medication mistakes, also referred to as medication errors, are one of the most frequent causes of medical malpractice lawsuits. They can be the result of a doctor writing a prescription that is not correct or giving the wrong dosage to a patient. These errors are usually avoidable. Based on the circumstances an individual pharmacy, hospital or other health care provider could be held accountable for the harm caused by patients who were given the wrong dosage of a drug.

A doctor may prescribe the wrong medication because of a misdiagnosis or by simply misreading the prescription. A health care professional may also administer the incorrect dosage due to a failure in communication. For instance the nurse might take a doctor's prescription and read it incorrectly or a pharmacist might fail to fill the prescription. In other instances the doctor may delay the administration of the correct medication, which can cause the patient's illness to worsening.

To win an action for malpractice, a victim must establish that the medical professional violated their standard of care, and that negligence directly caused their injuries. This requires the testimony of a medical expert. Moreover, a medical malpractice claim must establish the extent of the victim's injuries as well as the damages they suffered because of the negligence. This includes the cost of a person's treatment and any lost wages. In general, the greater a loss is in the greater value of the claim will be.

Wrong Procedure

This kind of incident is not unusual. It may seem impossible for medical professionals to carry out the incorrect procedure on patients but it's true. A surgeon who commits this error can be found accountable for malpractice. If a patient is injured because of an error in surgery could be held liable for any error that occurred during the procedure.

A health care professional accused of malpractice must demonstrate that the patient was injured due to a specific act, or failure to perform the act. To establish this, the patient's legal team must show that: (1) the doctor was bound by the obligation to provide medical care or treatment; (2) that the doctor breached the duty of care; (3) that there is a direct causal connection between the breach and the injury; and malpractice (4) that the injury causes damages that the legal system could be able to address.

A breach of the duty of care has no significance unless it causes injury, which is the reason medical malpractice claims are usually made based on a law known as "res ipsa loquitur." This law says that, in a majority of cases certain injuries are so evident and obvious that they cannot be explained except by negligence.

Depending on the facts the plaintiff (the person who filed the claim, or their legal representative) or their lawyer may decide to file the case in federal or state court. The majority of malpractice cases are filed in state court, but under certain circumstances the medical malpractice lawsuit may be filed in federal district court.

Wrong Surgery

The wrong-site procedure is rare but it can be considered medical malpractice if the procedure is performed in the wrong part of your body. This kind of error is usually caused by miscommunication between members of a surgical team or production pressure that results in an individual surgeon being assigned multiple surgeries at one time. In these cases, the surgeon is not all-in on his liability for a wrong-site surgery due to an underlying legal principle referred to as "res ipsa loquitur" which means that the consequence of the error is evident and can be attributed to negligence.

If an individual is injured in an operation that was performed on the wrong site it is possible that the patient will require additional procedures to fix problems that were made worse by the mistake. This leads to costly medical bills for patients and their families. This expense should be considered when calculating the financial consequences of medical malpractice claims.

Most often surgeons are accountable for surgical mistakes. They are responsible in preparing the patient for the procedure, examining the medical records and chart of the patient, communicating with the rest of the medical staff, and ensuring that the incision was made at the right place. In some instances, an anesthesiologist or a hospital could also be accountable. Medical malpractice lawsuits are typically filed in state court, however, they can be transferred under certain circumstances to federal court.