What Are Considered Valid Grounds For Medical Malpractice Cases?

Medical malpractice laws are very complex and filing a claim is very difficult. 

To help you in these challenging times, we’ve compiled a helpful informative article that can provide you with all the details you need if you’re planning to file a claim against a negligent physician.

Keep reading, and you’ll learn exactly what are solid grounds for medical malpractice cases and whether your case meets the mark.

What is medical malpractice?

To gain an understanding of the grounds for medical malpractice cases, you need to learn what is medical malpractice. 

Medical malpractice is a civil suit brought against a physician who caused injury to their patient through negligence. Various standards need to be met for the case to be considered valid. An unsuccessful surgery alone isn’t medical malpractice. Sometimes, injuries occur even if a healthcare professional did their best job. 

To have grounds for medical malpractice cases, plaintiffs need to demonstrate the following elements:

• Existence of a doctor-patient relationship
• The medical professional acted negligently
• The medical professional caused an injury
• A breach of standards of care occurred
• The negligent event caused the injury

In other words, you need to demonstrate a medical provider failed to provide you or a loved one with medical care. Generally, this happens with the assistance of a medical professional practicing in the same field. They can either sign an affidavit or provide court testimony to substantiate your claim.

For instance, if a loved one received a delayed cancer diagnosis, an oncologist can provide testimony backing your claim. 

In addition, your attorney must also prove causation or that a medical professional’s negligence directly led to your injury. 

What are some common examples of medical malpractice?

If accepted precautions and standards aren’t followed, for instance when a physician fails to order the right tests, you have the grounds for medical malpractice.

Common examples include:

• Incorrect or no diagnosis 
• Surgical errors
• Birth injuries
• Improper administration of anesthesia
• Medication errors
• Equipment failure

What damages can you recover?

A malpractice injury could lead to extensive monetary losses. As such, Florida Statutes allow you to recover the compensation for the following damages. This includes:

• Medical costs 
• Ongoing medical care 
• Loss of earning capacity 
• Lost wages

In addition, you can also recover non-economic damages. As the name suggests, this refers to compensation for unquantifiable losses such as:

• Anxiety
• Loss of quality of life
• Pain and suffering
• Mental anguish
• Loss of consortium

At the moment of writing there is no cap on non-economic damages. In the past, the limit was $500k against medical practitioners. There is a possibility that the Florida Supreme Court may reinstate caps on compensatory damages if they deem fit. 

What is the statute of limitations for malpractice cases?

A statute of limitations, or a filing limit for civil cases in layman’s terms, is two years from the date of discovery of the injury or from when you should have reasonably discovered the injury. 

There is also a hard deadline of four years from the time when the injury or malpractice event occurred. Similarly, if a child under the age of eight was harmed through a medical professional’s negligence, the parents or caretakers must bring the injury before the child’s eighth birthday.

Moreover, if fraud or attempts to misrepresent or conceal facts surrounding the event occurred, the statute of limitations is extended two years from the date of discovery. Depending on the circumstances, in cases surrounding fraud, the statute of limitations may be extended upwards of seven years. 

The process of filing a malpractice suit

Here’s a process of filing a suit you can expect:

1. Investigation process

An attorney will take over all the intricacies of the case. Malpractice is notoriously difficult to manage for lay people, which is why having a legal team on your side is essential to ensure a positive outcome of the process.

A legal professional will conduct a full investigation into the case. They’ll speak with the victim and their family to establish a narrative and a logical timeframe. 

They’ll also review medical records to substantiate your claims. Sometimes, even if they’re your own medical records it may be challenging to recover them. This is why you should leave your attorney to deal with this particular issue. 

2. Consulting medical experts

Most medical malpractice attorneys aren’t experts in ascertaining whether the doctor’s actions are grounds for medical malpractice. The medical expert will closely examine all your medical records and they’ll provide their findings on whether the care you received deviated from accepted standards of care.

If they believe malpractice occurred, they’ll also determine if the negligent actions directly led to your injuries. As we mentioned earlier, it’s not enough to prove that the physician fell below standards of care to win, the medical expert must also establish the doctor contributed to your injury through their action or inaction. 

If both factors are present, the medical expert will provide a sworn statement with their findings and your claim can enter a pre-suit phase of the process.

3. Pre-suit

Your lawsuit then enters a pre-suit period during which the defendant can conduct their investigation. They can either make an offer in order to settle the case off-court, deny the claim, or do nothing, which causes them to lose the case.

If the defendant’s offer is not substantial enough to cover for the damages the case will enter the trial phase.

4. Trial

During the trial, both parties will present their case in front of the jury, and the ones who have a stronger claim will win. Both parties can appeal this decision and the case will be reviewed by a higher court.

File a claim now

You owe it to yourself and your loved one to seek damages if you suffered an injury due to a medical practitioner’s negligence. This won’t just help you cover your losses, but may also serve as a deterrent and force the medical institutions to increase their professional standards.

If you believe you have a case, contact Sowell Chakour. Malpractice is our main calling and along with providing exemplary legal services, we also possess a deep knowledge of the medical field. 

File a claim now - call (833) 633-6257 or fill out our contact form.

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.