When you are trying to find a medical malpractice attorney in New York, and you happen to know a personal injury attorney, you would want to know if this lawyer could handle your medical malpractice case.
When you are trying to find a medical malpractice attorney in New York, and you happen to know a personal injury attorney, you would want to know if this lawyer could handle your medical malpractice case.
Who is a Personal Injury Lawyer?
There are numerous personal injury lawyers in New York. First, you need to be clear as to who is a personal injury lawyer. An attorney who represents injured victims, who are trying to get compensation for their injuries caused by someone’s carelessness, is a personal injury lawyer. The carelessness could be of a driver who has caused the car accident that has resulted in the victim’s injuries.
It could also be carelessness that has caused wrongful death of a person. Now does such an attorney also handle claims against doctors and hospitals? In a medical malpractice case, the claim will be that the doctors or hospitals have violated the basic standards of medical care, while treating the patients.
Why a Personal Injury Lawyer May not be Handling Medical Malpractice Cases
The answer is not every personal injury lawyer in New York also handles medical malpractice cases. There are three crucial and salient reasons why many personal injury lawyers do not handle medical malpractice cases.
1. The complexity associated with medical malpractice cases is much more compared to accident cases or other personal injury cases. A medical malpractice case will involve many medical terms, the lawyer will need to have some knowledge of expected standard of medical care, and laws associated with dispensing medical care. On the other hand, the accident lawyer will be mainly involved in proving fault of the other driver, and extent of injuries suffered by his client.
2. It is much more expensive to prosecute a medical malpractice case compared to personal injury case like accident and so on. Hence, apart from additional expertise, the medical malpractice lawyer or the firm should have enough finance to fight the case, as the fees are recovered only when the case is won.
3. The attorney’s fee in a medical malpractice case is less than what he could recover in an accident case. The lawyer’s fee will be the percentage of the compensation that the lawyer will receive if he wins the case.
Therefore, many personal injury attorneys in New York who handle accident cases will not also handle medical malpractice cases. Personal injury lawyer is a broad term, and it is not usually clear whether the lawyer is handling medical malpractice cases as well.
When you are trying to find an attorney who can help you with your medical malpractice matter, keep in mind that if you choose to call an attorney who does accident cases, and calls himself a personal injury lawyer, then he may not be the lawyer whom you are looking for. Not every personal injury lawyer takes up claims involving claims of medical malpractice.
Discerning the Difference
Hence, when you are searching for a fantastic lawyer, you must recognize the differences between an attorney who handles just accident cases, and an attorney who not only handles personal injury cases but also medical malpractice cases as well.
