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Medical Negligence Law
Introduction to Medical Negligence Law
When a person receives medical care from a doctor, surgeon or hospital most of the time the services received are great but sometimes the patient is left feeling like the quality of care was unsatisfactory. When that low standard of care causes the patient harm or injury they may be entitled to be compensated through the courts under the medical negligence law. The patient must be able to prove that the reason for their injury or harm was cause by medical negligence but the definition of medical negligence in court is not exactly straight forward. Basically, medical negligence is when a doctor, nurse or facility fails to use a reasonable amount of skill or care that does not follow the typical practices of most in the medical profession.
Three Necessary Criteria
If you would like to file a claim under the medical negligence law, there are three criteria that you must be able to prove in order to be successful in court. The first criteria that you must prove is that the medical professional or facility that you are suing was required to give you a duty of care. For most cases this is fairly easy to prove because you probably made an appointment with your doctor or facility and they agreed to provide your medial services. Usually the only time this becomes unclear is in the case of an emergency and the harm was caused before they began medical treatment.
The second criteria, that you must be able to prove under the medical negligence law, is that the medical professional or facility provided you with medical services that were unacceptable. You must be able to prove that the care you received was outside the norm of the medical profession and that the logic that was used in making your medical decisions was flawed. You do not have to prove that they were acting in malice or that the act was intentional and in fact most of the time medical negligence is considered to be accidental and caused by human error.
The third criteria that you must be able to show the court is that you were actually harmed or injured as a result of the medical negligence. You must be able to prove that the harm was a direct result of the medical negligence and not just a result of the procedure that you had done. This usually requires medical documentation from a medical professional who can state exactly what harm was caused to you and what caused the harm to happen. Under the medical negligence law you must be able to prove not just one of these criteria but all three must satisfactorily be proven in court if you hope to win your case.
Claiming Damages under the Medical Negligence Law
Many people filing a claim under the medical negligence law want to know exactly what type of compensation they will be able to receive because of the harm they were caused. The laws basically say that the compensation received should be calculated to allow the patient to be in a financial position that he would have been in if the harm would have never occurred. The courts will take into account all of your financial losses and expenses and take into consideration the type of injury, the recovery time expected and if there will be any long-term effects of the injury.
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