Most Common Defenses To Medical Malpractice

When you go to a medical institution, you’re putting your life and well-being into the hands of someone else. This is why medical professionals are required to provide treatment that falls within the standards of care expected from other medical providers in similar circumstances.

Sadly, when a physician makes a mistake, they can leave a patient worse off than they were previously. To add insult to injury, these physicians will then jump through hoops when faced with medical malpractice claims in order to escape liability. 

If you’re preparing to file a claim against a negligent medical provider, you should learn the defenses to medical malpractice the other party may resort to in court. 

What constitutes medical malpractice?

Personal injury claims generally rest on negligence, and malpractice is no exception. In medical malpractice, negligence occurs when an act or omission by a medical provider causes harm to a patient. 

To determine whether an act or an omission is negligent, the medical professional in question will be measured against the standard of care. In other words, the plaintiff must demonstrate that a deviation from or a violation of the standard of care took place. 

Standard legal defenses to medical malpractice 

The medical professional and their defense will use a few common tactics to reduce their liabilities or even avoid them altogether. Since the burden of proof is on you, the plaintiff, you should hire an experienced malpractice attorney who can disprove the claims of the defendant and demonstrate how their negligence led to your injuries. 

These defenses to medical malpractice  are very common in Florida:

1. Claiming conduct didn’t fall below the standard of care

One of the most common defenses in the book is simply claiming the actions of the medical provider were acceptable under the established standard of care. Moreover, in some cases, the defense team may claim the physician's conduct exceeded what a similar provider would have done in similar circumstances. 

This seems like a foolproof defense, but an experienced malpractice attorney will leverage medical experts who can demonstrate how the defendant fell below the standard of care. 

2. No causation

The classic “no causation” defense refers to one of the main elements of medical negligence, without which a medical malpractice case would be invalid. What do we mean by this?

The main elements of medical negligence are as follows:

• Duty of care
• Breach of duty of care
• Cause in fact
• Resulting damages

The cause in fact concerns the question of whether a cause-and-effect relationship can be established between the breach of duty and the damages suffered by the plaintiff. For instance, the defense may argue that deviation from the standard of care did occur, but it’s in no way a substantial factor in the injury suffered by the plaintiff.

3. No damages

If the previous two defenses to medical malpractice fail, the medical professional’s legal team may argue that you didn’t suffer any damages even if their client did make a mistake. You can usually see this technique in matters regarding cancer misdiagnosis where the defense argues that delay in diagnosis didn’t substantially affect the plaintiff.

This can be a tough puzzle to crack. For example, if a person died from cancer, the defense may claim that the cancer was terminal and the actions of the defendant didn’t affect the outcome. On the other hand, if the patient survived, the defense would argue that no damages exist because the patient ultimately survived. 

4. Natural consequences

In some circumstances, the defense may resort to claiming that any injuries were the natural results of treatment or the condition. The argument is that the defendant can’t be liable for the consequences of the treatment because they were unavoidable. 

In reality, most natural consequences can now be circumvented with proper assessment, treatment, and monitoring. Meaning, this defense is by no means impervious to scrutiny. 

5. No guarantees

Medical providers can’t guarantee a particular outcome, so the defense team will most likely try to make this argument when a routine procedure goes awry. This is a bad excuse for negligent conduct because its only goal is to misrepresent the facts for the jury to make it appear nothing is ever guaranteed.

Fortunately, an experienced medical malpractice attorney can defuse this argument by proving that the basic procedure in question is in most cases very reliable, thus suggesting that the doctor was acting negligently. 

6. Pre-existing conditions

One of the worst defenses to medical malpractice is claiming that a pre-existing condition was the root cause of adverse health results. On the surface, this seems like a logical conclusion, but it’s a weak argument because a competent healthcare provider should have known about any pre-existing condition before administering treatment or rendering care. 

Because of this, shielding against negligent conduct by blaming other conditions like diabetes or obesity (classic arguments) simply won’t slide. 

7. Deflecting blame on another medical professional

The last technique on our list of defenses to medical malpractice is somewhat of a risky move on the part of the defense. Why? Because in order to deflect blame, the other party has to admit that medical malpractice happened. 

In cases where multiple medical professionals are involved, your attorney will commence legal action against all the parties who have liability. That way, the defendant won’t be able to shift blame to any party that’s not a part of the medical malpractice case. So in a way, if the other party resorts to this defense, it actually helps your claim as it alleviates your burden of proof.

Start building a foolproof malpractice case now!

Even if the element of negligence is as clear as the day, the liable parties will use all their resources in order to get off scot-free. This is the reality and here at Sowell Chakour, we’re fighting to change that, one client at a time. 

All of these defenses to medical malpractice seem hard to deal with. However, they’re typically easy to overcome for expert medical malpractice attorneys, such as those working on our team. 

By hiring us, you’ll receive unprecedented legal counsel substantiated by decades of experience in medical malpractice. Even better, one of our attorneys is a former surgeon, which allows us to provide a level of insider knowledge that’s impossible to match for most law firms. 

We can fight for justice together - call (833) 633-6257 or fill out our contact form and start building a foolproof malpractice case. 

Note: 

The information in this blog post is for reference only and not legal advice. As such, you should not make legal decisions based on the information in this blog post. Moreover, there is no lawyer-client relationship resulting from this blog post, nor should any such relationship be implied. If you need legal counsel, please consult a lawyer licensed to practice in your jurisdiction.