Discover What You Need to Do to Win Your Medical Malpractice Suit

<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;Medical malpractice suits are becoming an increasingly common occurrence these days&period; When a doctor or other health care provider does not do something within the accepted standards of practice for the community&comma; and that negligence causes injury to the patient&comma; that doctor or health care professional can be sued&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"mh-content-ad"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js&quest;client&equals;ca-pub-9162800720558968"&NewLine; crossorigin&equals;"anonymous"><&sol;script>&NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle"&NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block&semi; text-align&colon;center&semi;"&NewLine; data-ad-layout&equals;"in-article"&NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"fluid"&NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-9162800720558968"&NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"1081854981"><&sol;ins>&NewLine;<script>&NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi;&NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;In these cases&comma; the plaintiff is the patient that was harmed&comma; and the defendant is the health care professional and sometimes the medical organization involved in a particular incident&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;In most cases&comma; medical malpractice is caused by negligence&comma; omission&comma; mistake&comma; et cetera&period; In other words&comma; although preventable&comma; most malpractice suits are brought because some occurrence accidentally did not happen that should have or vice versa&period; In some cases&comma; however&comma; what appears to be medical malpractice is actually a deliberate act of either murder or injury&period; For example&comma; there have been several cases in which health care providers were convicted of murder only after the fact because so many patients died on their watch that officials became suspicious&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;For a plaintiff to establish that medical malpractice has occurred&comma; the following elements must be present&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;&ast; The oversight&comma; carelessness&comma; negligence&comma; etc&period;&comma; must have caused injury&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;&ast; A specific duty must have been overlooked&comma; such as that the provider didn&&num;8217&semi;t conform to the established standard of care&period; The standard of care itself is proved by expert testimony or by obvious errors that absolutely show an adequate job was not done&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;&ast; The health care provider had a duty to provide the medical care&comma; etc&period;&comma; that it did not and was legally obligated to&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;&ast; The damage or loss must be specified and quantified&period; The damage can be emotional&comma; physical&comma; or both&comma; but without damage established&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s no basis for a claim even if the medical provider was indeed negligent&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;In most cases&comma; medical malpractice&comma; once established&comma; moves on to the next phase of the legal system&period; In this case&comma; the plaintiff&&num;8217&semi;s attorney or the plaintiff himself or herself files a lawsuit in a court within the appropriate jurisdiction&period; Thereafter&comma; a trial is set to occur&period; During the process between the filing of the suit and the onset of the trial&comma; both parties &lpar;plaintiff and defendant&rpar; share information &lpar;usually via their attorneys&rpar; in a process that is known as discovery&period; During this phase of development&comma; depositions&comma; requests for documents&comma; and interrogatories may be performed&period; If a settlement is offered and both parties agree to it&comma; the case may settle and not go to trial&period; If this does not happen&comma; however&comma; the case is brought to trial&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;In a medical malpractice lawsuit&comma; the plaintiff &lpar;the party saying that he or she has been injured&rpar; is the one with the burden of proof&period; In this case&comma; the burden of proof has to be by a preponderance or majority of evidence&comma; specifically 51&percnt;&period; If the case goes to trial&comma; both parties present evidence and experts to support their particular claim of guilt or innocence&period; After the trial ends&comma; the factfinder &lpar;jury or judge&rpar; is left to deliberate and weigh all of the evidence&period; At that point&comma; the factfinder decides which side is most credible and renders a verdict&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;Once the verdict is rendered&comma; the defendant is found to be guilty or not guilty&period; If found guilty&comma; the medical malpractice moves to being part of the record and compensatory and punitive damages are awarded to the plaintiff as rendered applicable by the factfinder&period; If found not guilty&comma; the defendant is absolved of all wrongdoing&period; In some cases&comma; the losing party on either side may move to have a new trial&period; The plaintiff can also ask to have an exceptionally small award be increased&comma; while the defendant can also ask to have an exceptionally large award be reduced&comma; in some jurisdictions&period; In addition&comma; either side may move to appeal the judgment&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;One of the things currently fueling medical malpractice suits is the &&num;8220&semi;cheapness&&num;8221&semi; being dictated by many health insurance providers&period; Many times a patient will not receive specific treatment because it is not authorized by their health insurance provider&comma; or there is a long delay in getting that approval&comma; where the end result for the patient causes them pain&comma; severe illness&comma; and can even be fatal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;Although medical malpractice laws are meant to protect patients&comma; many parties have begun to feel that in fact&comma; health-care providers are unfairly targeted for malpractice&period; This is in part because there are some plaintiffs who falsely file claims in hopes that they&&num;8217&semi;ll receive a large monetary award if they win&comma; not because any negligence has actually occurred&period; Therefore&comma; in some cases&comma; award amounts may be limited depending on the jurisdiction&period; It is important for all parties to remember is that if medical malpractice is to work as it should&comma; only medical personnel who are truly guilty of malpractice should be targeted for it&comma; and not simply because a plaintiff hopes to receive an exceptional monetary award&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;It should also be noted that fraudulent claims of malpractice are damaging in and of themselves&period; They damage the medical community&comma; and they damage the legal system because they tie up resources that could better be used elsewhere&period; They also artificially inflate premium amounts for malpractice insurance&comma; which is another detriment to the medical community&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;