A Guide to Medical Malpractice Lawsuits (2024)

Being injured due to a healthcare provider’s negligent conduct can be devastating, but you’re not helpless — there are legal steps you can take to recover losses. One of these is to file a malpractice lawsuit.

Medical malpractice lawsuits give you the chance to recover damages for the medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering you’ve sustained.

What Is a Malpractice Lawsuit?

Medical malpractice lawsuits are civil actions that patients can bring against healthcare professionals when their negligence causes harm.

There are certain elements you must meet in a medical malpractice claim to prove negligence. They include:

• Establishing that the provider owed you a duty of care

• Showing that the provider breached their duty of care

• Proving that the defendant’s actions are the proximate cause of your harm

• Demonstrating that you suffered compensable losses

It’s important to note that not every patient who suffers harm does so because of a medical professional’s conduct. Some effects may not be the result of negligence but of the inherent danger of certain procedures. If you’re having open-heart surgery, for example, you’ll face many risks that have nothing to do with negligence.

In order to have a civil medical malpractice lawsuit, the patient must show that another healthcare provider of reasonable skill and knowledge wouldn’t have made the same error.

Common Types of Medical Malpractice Claims

Medical malpractice claims can result from various types of negligent conduct. Here are a few common examples:

Misdiagnosis or Failure to Diagnose

Healthcare providers who fail to diagnose a patient in a timely manner or diagnose them with the wrong condition can cause significant harm.

Diagnostic errors can result in patients receiving medications that make conditions worse or create other health complications. With diseases for which fast treatment impacts survival rates, like cancer, a delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis can endanger the patient’s life.

Failure to Treat

Failure to treat is different from failure to diagnose. It involves getting the right diagnosis but not providing appropriate treatment. For example, a careless medical professional might forget to prescribe a crucial medication.

Birth Injuries

Birth injuries put the lives of both mothers and babies at risk. Providers who neglect to monitor vital signs, use excessive force during labor, or fail to notice signs of fetal distress can all cause birth injuries, from bone fractures to cerebral palsy.

Any of these errors can be grounds for a malpractice lawsuit. With a birth injury lawyer assisting you, you can seek compensation for the harm your child suffered.

Surgical Malpractice

When a surgeon operates on the wrong body part or leaves instruments inside the patient, they commit surgical malpractice. Legal remedies are available for such unacceptable oversights.

Anesthesia Errors

If an anesthetist doesn’t monitor a patient’s vitals correctly during surgery, they put them at risk of fatal complications. Care providers who make errors related to dosage are also guilty of malpractice.

A qualified medical malpractice lawyer can help you understand the type of claim you should pursue.

How Does a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Work?

To initiate the process of suing for malpractice, many states (like Michigan, for example) require the plaintiff to send a Notice of Intent that informs everyone named in the lawsuit of their intent to sue. The defendants must respond to the Notice of Intent within a certain period, which varies by state.

Once you receive a response, you’ll have to wait while your lawyer attempts to negotiate a settlement with the insurance company. They’ll present evidence that you were harmed by the healthcare provider’s actions and attempt to secure a fair settlement.

In some instances, the at-fault party’s insurer will agree to what you’re asking for, and you can quickly receive compensation. In other cases, however, it will be necessary to litigate.

Malpractice Lawsuit Statute of Limitations

The term “statute of limitations” refers to a timeline you must abide by when filing a legal claim. Statutes of limitations exist to ensure that claims are brought in a timely manner while there’s still viable evidence available.

The statute of limitations for medical malpractice lawsuits differs from state to state. However, they usually begin when you discover the injury or should reasonably have discovered it. If you file a claim after the deadline, your case will be dismissed.

Damages Available in Malpractice Lawsuits

You can seek both economic and non-economic damages as part of a medical malpractice claim. Economic damages cover financial losses like medical expenses and lost wages. If you can’t return to work in the same capacity as before or at all, you can claim loss of earning potential as well.

Non-economic damages, meanwhile, compensate you for intangible losses, such as pain and suffering or loss of enjoyment of life. Following the wrongful death of a loved one as a result of medical malpractice, you can also claim loss of consortium.

Find an Experienced Medical Malpractice Lawyer

If you’ve been harmed due to a medical professional's negligence, you may be eligible to file a claim for compensation. To do so, however, you’ll need to work with a skilled medical malpractice lawyer.

Malpractice lawsuits are particularly complicated because they involve complex medical procedures and legal concepts like the standard of care. Your lawyer can bring in medical experts to offer authoritative testimonies.

The ConsumerShield team is proud to provide dependable legal information, including free case evaluations. We can put you in contact with a trusted lawyer in your area so you can get the assistance you need. Fill out our contact form to get started.