According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the third leading cause of death in the United States is medical negligence. It falls right behind heart disease and cancer. In 2012, the cost of medical malpractice payouts was more than $3 billion, which was an average of 1 payout every 43 minutes. About 65,000 to 200,000 deaths are caused each year by medical accidents. According to hospital records, 25,000 to 120,000 deaths are a result of medical malpractice or negligence every year.
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the third leading cause of death in the United States is medical negligence. It falls right behind heart disease and cancer. In 2012, the cost of medical malpractice payouts was more than $3 billion, which was an average of 1 payout every 43 minutes. About 65,000 to 200,000 deaths are caused each year by medical accidents. According to hospital records, 25,000 to 120,000 deaths are a result of medical malpractice or negligence every year.
One of the first things you need to consider when filing a medical malpractice lawsuit is what you need to prove. In a legal medical malpractice claim, you need to establish that your doctor was negligent in providing medical care or treatment to you, and that negligence resulted in injury or harm.
Existence of a Doctor-Patient Relationship
The first thing that you need to do is prove that a doctor-patient relationship existed. In the eyes of the law, that relationship gives rise to a duty of the doctor to provide you with competent medical care under the circumstances. You generally do not need to prove this in a malpractice case. If the doctor agreed to provide you with some type of treatment, then it establishes that the doctor-patient relationship existed. In most cases, this medical malpractice element goes unchallenged.
Proof of the Doctor’s Negligent Care
In general, the issue here is whether the doctor acted with the care and skill that a similarly-trained doctor would have demonstrated under the same circumstances. In legal terms, this is referred to as “medical standard of care“, and it is a crucial element in medical malpractice cases.
In order to establish whether your doctor maintained the medical standard of care during your treatment, your doctor will be compared with other medical care professionals in the same field in similar circumstances. In most cases, this is done with the help of expert witnesses who will testify about what a reasonably skilled or competent doctor would do under the same circumstances.
Connection between Doctor’s Negligence and Your Injury
Proving that your doctor made mistakes that most doctors would not have made in the same situation is not enough. You also need to show that your doctor’s action, or failure to act, caused you to suffer some injury or harm, or made your condition become worse. You need to clearly show that your injuries are not caused by an underlying medical condition or some other reason but the substandard or negligent care provided by your doctor.
The Best Law Firm in America’s Biggest City
If you or a loved one has suffered injury or harm due to your doctor’s negligent care, you should seek the legal counsel of an experienced medical malpractice attorney at Rosenberg, Minc, Falkoff, & Wolff of RMFW Law at 212-344-1000.
The first meeting with us is free. We want to hear what you have to say. If your case is winnable, we would like to secure your case and take your case to the legal Promised Land. We have been winning cases for years and we plan on winning many more cases. We have won millions of dollars for past clients, you too can be on that sterling list.
