Medical malpractice is alarmingly common. But, even though this is the case, proving your legal rights as a victim of medical malpractice can still prove challenging. Proving medical malpractice requires clear evidence of liability, and, to pursue claims, patients and their families must have a clear understanding of when medical mistakes are severe enough to justify claims for financial compensation.
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Category: Medical Malpractice
If you have suffered injuries due to the negligence of a healthcare professional — or if you have had existing injuries significantly exacerbated by such negligence — then you may be entitled to sue and recover damages pursuant to a medical malpractice claim. In fact, Pennsylvania is particularly friendly to medical malpractice plaintiffs, as the law does not impose limits on compensatory damages (in the medical malpractice context). Many plaintiffs with potentially actionable medical malpractice claims don’t quite know how medical malpractice liability actually works, nor do they fully understand who they are entitled to sue. It’s not at all uncommon for plaintiffs to mistakenly believe that they can only sue negligent doctors. Let’s clear up this confusion. We’ll consider the basics, first. What is Medical Malpractice? When a healthcare professional commits medical negligence, and in doing so, causes you to suffer injuries, that is defined. as medical malpractice. Medical negligence requires that the healthcare professional violate the standard of care. Common examples of medical malpractice include: Failure to properly consider patient’s medical history Failure to clean medical tools and other instruments Failure to correctly diagnose condition Failure to order necessary tests And more In the medical malpractice context, the standard of care is dynamic, and is governed by the circumstances. For example, the standard of care for a nurse treating a rare and complicated disease will be generally lower than the standard of care for a specialized epidemiologist. Liability May Attach to Different Healthcare Professionals Though physicians are often […]
In many states, medical malpractice damages are statutorily limited so as to discourage injured plaintiffs from pursuing litigation against healthcare professionals — in the state of California, for example, there is a $250,000 cap placed on compensatory damages (the primary form of damages). Damage cap limitations can have a significant effect on the cost-benefit analysis for an injured plaintiff. If there is a set maximum on recovery, then the plaintiff might not only be prevented from being adequately compensated for their injuries, but they might also find that it simply isn’t worth going through the process of litigation. Medical malpractice damages have been capped in a very limited manner in Pennsylvania. The cap is specific enough that it does not generally act as a barrier-to-entry for medical malpractice litigation. If you have suffered legitimate and provable losses due to the negligence of a healthcare professional, then it is almost certainly worth bringing a lawsuit against the defendant for damages (or at the very least, having your claim evaluated by a qualified medical malpractice attorney). Pennsylvania Does Not Cap Compensatory Damages Compensatory damages account for the economic and non-economic losses sustained by the plaintiff, and are intended to “compensate” them for their various injuries — in other words, compensatory damages are intended to put the plaintiff in a position that approximates their status had they not been injured by the defendant. In a medical malpractice lawsuit (as in other injury-based lawsuits), these damages can include medical expenses, pain and suffering, emotional […]
