Medical Malpractice: What to Look for in a Personal Injury Lawyer

Your doctor screwed up and now you are really, really ill. You haven’t been able to work and the bills are stacking up. You may not be physically able to do your job anymore. You are getting worn out trying to get your doctor to make things right and don’t know how much longer you can keep it up. You need to turn your energy toward finding an experienced medical malpractice lawyer. She will negotiate on your behalf and track down all the moving parts of your case and make the other side pay for what happened.

Unfortunately, doctors are human and make mistakes. A report from the federal government in 1999 estimated that between 44,000 and 98,000 people die in hospitals alone every year as a result of medical negligence. That’s not counting the other types of medical offices and doesn’t include people who didn’t die but were injured. That’s a whole lot of people and you are one of them. A medical malpractice case is a lawsuit against doctors and other medical workers who make such errors.

Did your doctor commit malpractice against you? If he did something really obvious like perform the wrong operation, then absolutely. But it may be hard to tell what went wrong in your case. An experienced attorney can find out by looking through all the evidence. You’ll most likely need to sue everyone that participated in your care, including the hospital in order to get to the bottom of it. That consent form you signed shouldn’t keep you from asserting your rights. But it might require that you deal with problems out of court through arbitration. An experienced lawyer will know exactly how to handle such a situation.

If you’ve tried to get satisfaction you are probably already overwhelmed trying to deal with doctors, the hospital, insurance companies and their attorneys. You need someone who is an expert at dealing with these people to handle this for you. Your attorney will know what is fair and will not be intimidated by any one. But time is of the essence since there is a time limit on filing a suit. Find an attorney who is licensed to practice in your state and has a long career dealing with medical malpractice cases. Ask for details about how many of their cases are settled, how many get dismissed and how many go to trial A good attorney will really listen to your story and ask a lot of questions. She’ll make sure you understand what to expect and how she will be paid. Watch out for slick lawyers who brag about how much they’ll get for you before they’ve heard your story.

After your lawsuit is filed then both sides will start gathering evidence and witnesses. This discovery phase of the suit also helps your attorney assess your potential damages. Both your attorney and the attorneys for the other side will need access to all of your medical records. Your lawyer will also hire experts to look at your injuries. A formal interview under oath, called a deposition, will happen as part of this process. None of this happens quickly. Expect this to take a long time, even if you agree to a settlement before trial.

You trusted your doctor to heal, not harm you and he let you down. You’ve been injured and need someone to pay for your lost wages and medical bills. An attorney experienced in medical malpractice cases is necessary to ensure that you are properly compensated. But don’t expect a big cash payout overnight. It can be complicated to find out what happened and there are a going to be a lot of different people involved. Your attorney can take care of the details while you take care of getting better.