Six Ways to Strengthen Your Medical Malpractice Claim
When you or a family member is injured or sick, we place trust in doctors, health care facilities, and other medical professionals to care for us and help us become well again. We don’t usually expect that a health care professional will act negligently or commit a gross error that can result in injury or death. Unfortunately, cases of medical malpractice in New Jersey can lead to terrible injuries and fatalities in patients who put their trust in a health care professional.
If you think your physician is liable for malpractice, but you are unsure of what to do next, our team of medical malpractice lawyers in New Jersey is here to help you take the required steps to prove a claim of medical malpractice.
Step One: Investigation
The first step in proving a claim of medical malpractice is to examine the incident. A skilled medical malpractice attorney is crucial at this stage of the process. Your attorney knows what is needed to manage an in-depth investigation, including copies of all medical records and opinions from medical experts. Once you hire a lawyer, the following steps of the process to prove medical malpractice will be managed completely by your lawyer.
Step Two: Proving Doctor-Patient Relationship
A key element in all medical malpractice cases is establishing that you had a doctor-patient relationship with the health care provider. This step is usually fairly simple and easy to prove by obtaining copies of the documents you completed during your initial meeting with the health care provider. The doctor-patient relationship is rarely contested, but it is a required element because it confirms that the physician owed you a duty of care to provide proficient care.
Step Three: Proving Breach of Duty of Care
In most cases, medical negligence is defined as failing to provide care according to the medical standard of care. Establishing a breach of the duty of care calls for a two-step process.
A medical expert has to establish what the agreed-upon medical standard of care would have been under your unique circumstances. The medical expert is usually a professional working in the same field who can offer testimony demonstrating that a proficient and reasonably skilled health care provider in the same field would have done under like circumstances.
The next step covers the expert exploring the medical records and the actions of the physician to ascertain whether the physician failed to meet the agreed-upon medical standard of care.
Step Four: Proving Injuries or Harm
The next step is connecting the medical negligence to your injuries or the harm caused to you due to the negligence. All instances of medical negligence will not provide the basis of a medical malpractice claim. If you are unable to show that the medical negligence resulted in the injuries or harm you suffered, you may be unable to establish malpractice. Medical experts are also used during this step to justify how the medical error or negligence contributed to your injuries.
Step Five: Providing Evidence of Damages
You have to show that the injuries or harm suffered due to medical negligence or malpractice resulted in damages. In a majority of cases, damages include medical costs and lost income that would have occurred if it were not for the injury. Physical pain, emotional anguish, and permanent disability are also examples of damages compensable in a medical malpractice claim.
Step Six: Proving Legal Elements for a Medical Malpractice Claim
The sixth step is taking all the evidence and using it to establish each of the legal elements contained in the other steps are present. Due to the technical nature and complicated laws associated with medical malpractice, your case may require a qualified New Jersey medical malpractice lawyer. A medical malpractice lawyer can investigate, construct a case, and present the evidence in a way that proves a large amount of the evidence that the physician acted negligently, and that the negligence resulted in injuries and damages.
Medical Malpractice Injuries in New Jersey
Medical malpractice would never happen in a perfect world, and health care providers would always provide us with the medical treatments necessary. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Statistics show that medical malpractice is the cause of nearly 120,000 fatalities each year. While this may be surprising, shockingly, fewer than 3% of malpractice victims ever pursue compensation for their injuries or other damages. That means many deserving victims never end up filing a medical malpractice claim. The legal team at Brady Reilly & Cardoso, LLC believes that all victims of medical malpractice deserve to recover the compensation needed to cover their losses and damages resulting from an instance of medical malpractice.
Patients are at risk of experiencing catastrophic injuries when a doctor or medical facility makes a mistake during any stage of the treatment process. In these cases, injured parties can potentially pursue a personal injury claim with the help of a qualified attorney. Medical malpractice claims allow victims to hold doctors, hospitals, and health care professionals accountable for their mistakes and possibly obtain compensation for their damages. If you were misdiagnosed or a physician failed to diagnose your condition, it can potentially be a fatal error. Consulting with legal council will provide you with the information you need to decide your next steps in order to receive proper compensation for your pain and suffering.
