Only One Out of Every Eight Patients Harmed By Medical Malpractice Ever Contact a Lawyer

Kahn Gauthier Swick is investigating medical malpractice legal actions requiring lawyer representation on behalf of patients who were harmed by medical malpractice, and their families. Medical malpractice encompasses all medical malpractice negligence by medical care providers that causes medical malpractice harm to the patient. A medical malpractice legal action seeking to recover for medical malpractice will be filed by a lawyer against the physicians or other medical care providers, such as nurses or radiologists, who were negligent. The medical malpractice medical facility where the patient was treated may also be named as a medical malpractice defendant.

Proving Medical Malpractice

Not every doctor's decision that leads to a bad result is medical malpractice. Medical malpractice exists when (1) the doctor failed to act in accordance with the applicable standard of care, and (2) the patient suffered harm. There is no medical malpractice when the physician made a reasonable medical judgment that simply turned out to be wrong. Nor is a lawyer necessary for medical malpractice when the physician made an error but the patient, fortunately, was not harmed by that mistake.

Establishing the applicable standard of care, then, is crucial in a medical malpractice action. This is done through the testimony of medical experts. Historically, under the "locality rule," a general practitioner was required only to use the skill and care that is ordinarily used by reasonably well-qualified physicians in the locality, or similar localities, in which he or she practices. But today the trend is toward abolishing this rule in favor of a national standard of practice. Medical specialists, on the other hand, are always held to the nationally-accepted standard of practice for specialists in that field of medicine.

Research shows that the vast majority of patients harmed by medical malpractice don't protect their legal rights by seeking financial compensation for their injuries. A report from the Harvard School of Public Health (the Harvard Medical Practice Study) found that only one in eight patients harmed by medical malpractice negligence ever files a legal action with a lawyer, and only one in sixteen recovers any medical malpractice damages by retaining the service of a lawyer.

If you believe you have a medical malpratice case, then contact a lawyer.