Healthcare workers are very busy people but all doctors and nurses know what sort of routine awaits them when they first sign up for their jobs, thus, this is no excuse for them to ignore your needs. Medical malpractice results due to negligence on the part of the professionals who make an avoidable mistake that causes suffering to their patients.
Contact a Fort Lauderdale medical malpractice lawyers to go over your options if you or a loved one suffered of a medical negligence.
Severe physical agony, emotional pain, financial losses, and even wrongful deaths are possible in such cases. Medical malpractice has claimed the joy of life of many people and even caused a fair share of wrongful deaths. Seeking fair compensation for your losses due to the negligence of a healthcare professional is your legal right, and you should not hesitate to get in touch with experienced medical malpractice attorneys and get started with the settlement process.
We will cover the details of medical malpractice claims in Fort Lauderdale, and how medical malpractice attorneys can help you.
There is room for error in everything that humans do and this includes the medical profession as well. However, there exists a fine line between negligence and mistake. Some actions may be forgiven as innocent mistakes, but others can be proven as intentional, allowing the victims to demand fair compensation.
Medical malpractice is not limited only to hospitals and clinics but can happen in any medical environment such as a nursing home or even in one’s home (for a visiting health care provider). In such cases, the medical professional must have failed to act responsibly, as was expected of them, and this negligence must have caused you some harm.
Defining negligence in the personal injury scenario is a bit different as it is understood otherwise. Every role or profession demands certain standard procedures and protocols. A person who has taken up such duties must adhere to these standard practices and ensure their own safety and that of the others as well. However, failing to uphold these duties and responsibilities, otherwise known as negligence, can result in some serious world of hate for the victim.
In such cases, the person who acted neglectfully will be held accountable for the actions. Anyone who’s ever been involved in such an incident can file a personal injury claim within the statute of limitations and seeking fair compensation for their losses.
While generalizing the specifics of medical malpractice and what it means to ignore the standard of care is not that easy, there are some recurring patterns that help define such cases. Your case may or may not fall under these categories, thus it is important to seek legal counsel from medical malpractice lawyers.
Here are the categories:
Of course, this is not the end of it. In short: if a medical professional acted unprofessionally and it affected you, you can sue them and their employer.
As with any personal injury case, if you were wronged due to medical malpractice, you can seek compensation for the economic and non-economic damages you sustained due to a poor standard of care. Medical malpractice victims usually have to face mounting financial consequences of the responsible party’s negligence.
These include the expenses of the treatment itself, the cost associated with delayed healing due to the incidence, and other economic damages. The last one covers all the extra expenses, lost wages, loss of long-term earning potential, and so on. Thus, a single incidence can leave you facing severe economic pressures.
In addition to these financial damages, the patients will also have to go through severe pain and suffering. Physical agony and mental pain are very subjective and there is no way for one to share their anguish with others. You will face a much harder time convincing the insurance adjuster of your losses.
For the former, your lawyer will simply sum up your expenses and factor in the long-term economic drains to give a final number. However, for non-economic damages, the usual practice is to assign a multiple between 1.5 and 5 (based on intensity) to the financial losses to get the final settlement sum.
This only applies if things settle with the insurance company which may not happen in some cases, prompting you to take matters to a court of law.
Of course, in severe conditions, your lawyer may be able to win an award for punitive damages in a court of law. Such damages are meant to be exemplary and can help victims punish the offenders for their negligent behavior. This kind only applies in highly critical situations, thus you can’t treat every case in a similar fashion.
From the moment things turn south, you’ll have to start gathering evidence. The medical malpractice things may not become immediately apparent to you and even if there are some delays here, things can still work out. You have the biggest evidence of them all with you: yourself.
Any independent diagnosis will help you point out exactly what’s wrong with you and how it correlates with the malpractice of an official.
Apart from this, you’ll need all of your medical records, evidence of interaction with the said doctor, evidence of your sufferings, and all the records of your expenses. This way, you will be able to cover the case from a wider angle and gain a strategic high ground during settlement negotiations.
The idea of malpractice cases is to prove the negligence of the other party. Medical professionals are chosen for the job only after rigorous training and quality-based assessments. Thus, acting neglectfully regarding the proscribed duties and failing to address the needs of a patient as needed are not acceptable for doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers.
Your mission is to establish a correlation between your losses and the negligence of the medical professional. This negligent behavior should be avoidable for it to be truly construed as negligence in the legal sense, i.e. the professional must have failed to act a certain way as is usually expected from such individuals under such circumstances.
With all of the evidence and a clear narrative, you should approach the insurance company of the medical professional and share the details with them. Be sure not to say anything that might undermine your position in the case. Having your personal injury lawyers by your side is a good idea in this regard because they will better prepare you to answer their questions and to deliver your message without any chance of it being misunderstood or parts of it being twisted to be used against you.
All of this, however, can only happen within a certain time limit dictated by the statute of limitations which puts a cap on the duration in which you can file your claim. Be sure to contact competent lawyers as soon as possible to get started before it’s too late.
Generally, the payout is reflected directly on the intensity of your case. If medical malpractice resulted in a wrongful death, then the sum awarded will be much higher, however, for moderate cases, it may only be a couple of thousand dollars.
There are limits here, of course, for instance, the non-economic damages shall be awarded no more than $500,000 in most cases if you sue a hospital or doctor. However, if the accused is an unlicensed individual, then this limit will be increased to $750,000.
For wrongful deaths and extreme cases, the sum can swell up to as much as $1,000,000, or it may be overruled altogether if the case demands as such.
Thus the payout is dependent on the condition of the victim and the parties involved, it is best to proceed with legal counsel here so that you know when it would be okay to take matters to a court of law.
Medical malpractice can put the victims under immense financial pressure, which, coupled with the physical and emotional toll associated with such negligence, can become unbearable. Going through this mess by yourself is never a good idea even if you’re seeking settlement outside a court of law.
If you’re worried about having to pay lawyers for their service, then you’d be glad to know that we, at the VG Law Firm, don’t demand any advance on our fees. Our team of professional personal injury lawyers offers their services on a contingency fee agreement meaning that you’ll only pay when you win.
If you have any reservations or confusion, feel free to get in touch with us, and we’ll guide you through the whole thing and get you on-board before starting!
