Did you have a bad experience with a doctor that led to an injury? If so, you're likely considering a medical malpractice lawsuit to receive some compensation. Here are some of the things that must be present in your case if you are to win in court with a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Establish A Standard of Care
Doctors are human and are not perfect. However, they are expected to be competent and meet the minimum standards of care when working with patients. A lawyer is going to help you establish what a reasonable standard of care should have been in your situation with a doctor. This is usually done by bringing in an expert witness from the medical field to testify how the standard of care should be present.
Show How The Standard of Care Was Breached
Now that you know what should have been done to ensure your safety, you need to demonstrate how that standard of care was breached. Your expert witness will help with this as well, by using examples from your experience of how they feel the doctor did things that were wrong. Things get a bit confusing because you can breach the standard of care in either one of two ways. either a doctor directly did something they should not have done, or they failed to do something that they should have done.
Show Causation
It's not enough that the doctor simply failed to meet your standard of care since that action must have directly led to the injury. A good example of this is how doctors should wear surgical gloves when performing surgery. If the doctor wasn't wearing gloves and everything about your surgery went fine, then there is no causation even though the standard of care was breached. However, if the doctor wasn't wearing gloves and you got an infection after the surgery, then you could demonstrate that there was causation between their action and the injury,
Show Damage
You will also need to have substantial damage that was a direct result of the standard of care being breached. Keep in mind that there are inherent risks involved when having medical procedures performed, and minor injuries may be viewed as part of the procedure. Having substantial damage that came from your interaction with the medical professional is going to help strengthen your case for a medical malpractice lawsuit. Your lawyer can help determine how serious of an injury you have based on their previous cases and how they played out in court.
Contact a medical malpractice attorney for more information.
