A Brief Primer of Medical Negligence Claims

Whether you ever have gone through this mishap or not, you must have heard of medical negligence cases. With the advancement of medical technology and knowledge it is very much justified to expect an error-free and effective healthcare system. Unfortunately, reality is beyond expectations as now we are witnessing even more medical negligence instances than ever. Since 1960, there has been a dramatic rise in the rate of malpractice claims. Why it’s so? Is it because healthcare system has loop holes or medical practitioners have become incompetent and irresponsible? Well, it is long debate, but whatever the reason is, several people haveto unduly suffer instead of recovering in hospitals.

Whenever some medical negligence case is reported, trial courts come in action and give both the claimant and defendant a chance to prove their stance. The losing party has to pay the compensation at the end. There have been some extreme situations where federal courts have had to hear medical negligence cases. Since majority of such claims are settled out of court, the number of cases brought to court is lesser than actual malpractice instances. According to a research, more than 55% claims do not reach the court trials whereas an equal proportion of claims are overruled by court. And many a times, court verdict comes in favor of accused practitioners; the reason might be insufficient evidences shown by claimants to support their claims. Court does not know if there has been some medical negligence or not, it just decides on the grounds on evidences.

There is a wide range of actions and inactions on part of medical practitioners that could be called as medical negligence – some of the most common mistakes are wrong diagnosis, prescription errors and selection of an improper therapy for treatment etc. Though all these above mentioned mistakes result in harms to patients, there are some more serious medical negligence cases that cause lifelong damages and disabilities to patients. Such serious blunders includes improper handling of child delivery and birth complications, operating on a wrong patient, leaving surgical tools inside patient’s body after the surgery, and performing a therapy without patient’s consent.

When a patient realizes that he has suffered some sort of medical negligence while being treated by a doctor, he can initiate a legal claim against the culprits. More or less, this entire process might take about two years until a final court verdict gets declared. During the period, a long series of legal formalities need to be completed such as medical reports and evidence collection, and procuring expert verification etc. It is the job of claimant’s solicitor to gather all essential details pertinent to hospital or accused physician prior to court trials.

Besides, medical negligence solicitors also arrange medical experts for assessing and verifying medical negligence claims. If claimant has a valid claim accompanied by strong evidences to prove doctor’s negligence, an experienced solicitor can assure him winning the compensation that he deserves against his inflicted damages. According to a latest survey, 1 out of every 3 patients is becoming a being victimized by medical malpractice and almost all medical practitioners face such trials in their professional career.