How to Prove Medical Malpractice
To prove medical malpractice, you must show that you suffered an injury because of negligence or a medical mistake. Medical malpractice claims are complex, and establishing fault for this error can be challenging. You must gather medical and scientific evidence and apply it under Florida law.
There are many pitfalls with medical malpractice claims, but working with a medical malpractice lawyer can help you build a solid case and seek maximum compensation.
Elements of Medical Malpractice
Sometimes, even when doctors treat patients to the best of their ability, they cannot repair injuries or cure diseases, and patients experience a negative outcome. Medical malpractice goes beyond this. Malpractice occurs when a negative outcome or injury happens due to an error or negligence.
To prove medical malpractice, you must establish the following four elements of medical negligence:
- Professional duty of care. When physicians or other providers treat a patient, they owe the individual receiving treatment a professional duty of care. This duty is a provider’s obligation to provide medical care in line with the accepted standards of the healthcare community.
- Breach of duty. Doctors, other healthcare professionals, and medical facilities breach their duty of care when they do not treat patients in a way that most others in their profession would deem reasonable. A breach can also be a failure to treat.
- Causation. You must prove that a healthcare professional’s breach of duty caused your injury or illness or worsened your medical condition.
- Damages. To win compensation, you must prove your injury led to monetary damages and pain and suffering.
Evidence in a Medical Malpractice Case
Proving medical malpractice requires investigating the incident that hurt you and supporting your claim with evidence, which may include:
- Eyewitness statements
- Laboratory tests
- Medical bills
- Medical records
- MRIs, X-rays, and CT scans
- Scientific and medical research
- Testimony from nurses, doctors, and medical professionals
- Documentation of your losses, including recipes, bills, and wage records
- Reports from medical professionals and other experts
Do You Need an Affidavit of Merit?
Before you can sue for medical malpractice in Florida, you must serve the liable medical provider with a notice of intent that includes an affidavit of merit.
The affidavit is a sworn statement from a medical professional attesting that a prospective defendant was negligent in his or her medical care, and that negligence caused an injury to the patient. The defendant has 90 days to respond, during which the court pauses (or tolls) the clock on the statute of limitations.
Our firm can use its network of doctors and nurses to enlist a professional to draft your affidavit. Our team can also tell you more about how legal deadlines apply to your claim.
Types of Medical Malpractice Injuries
Medical malpractice injuries can occur because of a variety of medical mistakes. You may have a claim if your injury resulted from:
- Medication errors, such as dosage errors, allergic reactions, adverse drug interactions, wrong patient/wrong medication mistakes, and pharmacy negligence
- Provider errors include failure to take a patient’s health history, failure to conduct a thorough physical exam, failure to order tests or labs, doctor error, and negligent nursing
- Surgical complications can include anesthesia errors, botched or unnecessary procedures, wrong-patient or wrong-site surgeries, severe infections, sepsis, or septic shock
- Labor and delivery complications, such as a failure to respond to signs of fetal distress or maternal distress, resulting in birth injury
- Diagnostic errors like misdiagnosis and failure to diagnose
- Hospital negligence, which includes emergency room negligence and premature patient discharge
Compensation for Medical Malpractice Injuries
If you or someone you love has a medical malpractice injury, you can pursue compensation for:
- Current and future medical treatment: Lawyers can seek repayment for hospital stays, surgeries, medications, medical equipment, physical therapy and rehabilitation, long-term nursing, and life care costs.
- Lost income: Malpractice attorneys will help you pursue wages, employment benefits, future lost earnings, and diminished earning capacity.
- Miscellaneous expenses: If you had to spend money on medically necessary home and vehicle modifications, assistance with household services, and medical travel costs, we can account for these expenses during negotiations.
- Pain and suffering: The mental and emotional impact of medical malpractice can seek damages for loss of enjoyment, lost quality of life, chronic pain, permanent injuries, disfigurement, scarring, emotional distress, and mental anguish.
- Wrongful death of a loved one: We’ll help you pursue funeral and burial costs, medical expenses, loss of the deceased’s wages and future income, loss of your loved one’s guidance, companionship, and protection, and survivors’ emotional pain and suffering.
Don’t wait too long to file your lawsuit for damages. Florida Statutes § 95.11 generally allows victims to sue for damages no more than two years from the date of the negligence (or the date they discovered the negligence), but no more than four years from the date of the negligent act (unless a rare exception exists). While some circumstances may extend this deadline, a medical malpractice attorney can review your case to make sure you are still eligible to file a suit.
Do You Need to Hire a Lawyer to Prove Medical Malpractice?
No law requires that you hire an attorney. However, hiring a medical malpractice lawyer means having someone who knows how to prove medical malpractice and navigate Florida’s legal system. In our experience, we have never seen a self-represented plaintiff obtain a positive result in a medical malpractice case.
Working with our firm can also give you access to resources and a legal team that can ease your burden. We will:
- Investigate your case and gather evidence to prove medical malpractice
- Identify liable parties
- Identify and pursue all of your damages
- Draft and file insurance claims and legal paperwork
- Represent your best interests in meetings, phone calls, emails, and other communications with involved parties
- Aggressively negotiate with insurance companies and hospitals for the maximum compensation possible
- Take your case to court and advocate for you at trial when necessary
Let Freidin Brown, P.A. Prove Your Medical Malpractice Claim
Freidin Brown, P.A. is a firm of trial-tested attorneys with more than 45 years of experience fighting for medical malpractice and personal injury victims. If you suffered an injury caused by medical negligence, we know how to prove it and get the money you need.
Contact us online or call today to learn more about working with our medical malpractice lawyers. We serve clients across Florida and offer free and confidential case evaluations. When you work with us, we never charge upfront or out-of-pocket costs or fees. We take cases on contingency, meaning we do not get paid until we win.
