When you suffer an injury due to the carelessness of a medical professional, you may recover substantial financial compensation. Before receiving a settlement or jury award, you must file a claim or lawsuit, which is just the beginning of a difficult and lengthy legal process.
You need the help of an experienced medical malpractice attorney if you want to have the best possible chance of a successful result in your legal case.
You will face a defendant and their insurance company who do not want to pay you the full amount of money that you deserve, if they will offer you anything at all.
Medical Malpractice Is a Civil and Not a Criminal Matter
Medical malpractice involves circumstances when the professional fails to uphold the duty of care they owe you. When you are receiving treatment from any type of medical professional, they owe you the duty to act reasonably under the circumstances.
The doctor needs to act in the same way that an average medical professional of ordinary training would when treating you. If they fall short of that duty of care, it can be considered negligence. Medical malpractice is a form of negligence.
Medical malpractice is usually considered a civil case. If you are filing a claim for medical malpractice, you will do so as part of a lawsuit against the doctor.
A medical malpractice lawsuit starts by filing a legal complaint seeking financial damages from the doctor, as opposed to having them put in jail. Only a prosecutor can file criminal charges resulting in penalties for the doctor other than civil liability.
When you can prove that the doctor committed malpractice, they will owe you full financial compensation for the harm that they caused you.
As a victim of medical malpractice, you will recover both economic and non-economic damages for your injury. The doctor may need to pay you punitive damages if you win your case at trial and the jury deems their actions to be grossly negligent or reckless.
The Doctor Can Face Consequences, Besides Having to Pay You Money
Besides paying you damages, the doctor can face other consequences in connection with medical malpractice. At the outset, their job and livelihood are at risk. Their employer can fire them for their conduct that caused your injury.
The employer may need to show that they took action to address what the doctor did. If the employer must pay a settlement, they may no longer want to have that doctor on staff. The doctor will have the malpractice case on their record, and that can make it harder for them to find a new job.
A doctor can also find it more difficult to obtain medical malpractice insurance coverage in the future.
The insurance company must determine whether they want to cover this particular medical professional. They may hesitate to do so, knowing that the doctor poses a risk for them, since they will need to pay for any damages the medical professional causes in the future.
If the insurance company does cover the doctor, they will charge a higher premium, making it harder for the doctor to even get insurance.
Even more consequentially, the doctor may lose their medical license. To be clear, losing their license is a drastic remedy that does not happen in every case. The state medical board will only suspend the doctor or strip them of their license for a case of serious medical malpractice or when they have a record of repeated careless conduct.
The doctor will recover due process and the ability to be heard before the medical board takes any action, including a suspension or probation for the loss of their license.
You may want to consider bringing what happened to you to the attention of the state medical board. Although it may not win your case for you if the doctor is found to have committed misconduct, it can still help you.
The defendant may want to avoid fighting your case in court if a record from a fact finder shows they broke the rules. Your medical malpractice lawyer will advise you whether to file a complaint with the state medical board.
Doctors Are Not Often Charged Criminally for Negligence
Criminal medical negligence occurs when the doctor knowingly or recklessly deviates from the standard of care that is expected of them under the circumstances, but this only seldom occurs.
For example, Conrad Murray, the doctor who treated Michael Jackson, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for his role in the pop singer’s death. In this case, he administered excessive amounts of a sleeping aid that caused Jackson’s death.
Contact a Medical Malpractice Lawyer to Learn About Your Legal Rights
If you suffer an injury during a medical procedure or due to the actions of a medical professional or institution, you may not even know that what your doctor did is considered malpractice. This gives you the right to financial compensation if you can prove it was directly related to the party’s negligence.
You can learn more about your potential case when you contact a medical malpractice attorney. They will discuss your injury and surrounding circumstances during a free initial consultation. They can alert you whether you have a potential lawsuit. Then, your medical malpractice attorney can also advise you of a path forward.
After devoting more extensive research and thought to your case, your McLean personal injury lawyer may also tell you how much you can expect in compensation.