How do I file a medical malpractice claim?

Rispoli & Borneo P.C.

Personal Injury Attorney

As a medical malpractice law firm, our lawyers would agree that these cases are some of the most challenging personal injury claims. This is often due to the defendants involved, and other complications. In general, if you think a medical professionals’ error caused you to be injured, you should ask a FL medical malpractice lawyer to review your case. 

Although cases like these do take time, dedication, and attention, with the right medical malpractice lawyer on your side, you may be able to recover compensation for your losses. 

How to File a Medical Malpractice Claim

If you or a loved one has been injured by a doctor, nurse, technician, or any other medical professional, it may be possible to pursue compensation by filing a medical malpractice claim. Proceeding with this process might feel confusing, especially if you have never tried to navigate the legal system. That being said, these are not the types of cases you want to undertake without a medical malpractice lawyer. 

Medical malpractice claims should be filed by the injured victim or a family member. If you don’t know whether you have a claim, you can ask a medical malpractice lawyer. If a lawyer is interested, he or she will likely review your case to see whether or not another medical professional, of a similar, or the same, profession, would have provided the same treatment had they been in the same circumstance. If they would not have, compensation may be available. To know the answer to this important question, a good medical malpractice lawyer will likely call upon various medical professionals and expert witnesses. 

Understanding What Happened

Prior to pursuing a claim, it may help to have an understanding of what happened. It is possible to discuss the error with the doctor, or medical professional, in an attempt to get them to address and correct the issue. Whether or not this would be possible will largely depend on what happened, and you might not want to pursue this without talking with a medical malpractice lawyer. 

Contact Your State’s Medical Board

It may be a good idea to report what happened with the Medical Board in your state. Although they won’t help you with the legal side of things, or to recover compensation, they may do their own investigation. Depending on their findings, the at-fault party could be fined, or disciplinary actions may be taken. 

Statute of Limitations

Regardless of where the malpractice occurred, there will be a statute of limitations. This means that a time limit will exist, and if you do not file a claim by this time limit, your case may be thrown out. Although a statute of limitations may be, for example, 2 years from the date you discovered, or should have known, about the injury, there may be mitigating circumstances that could affect the deadline. Only a medical malpractice lawyer can tell you what the applicable statute is. 

Get a Third Party Evaluation 

As a medical malpractice lawyer, we will likely ask you to have a medical exam by a third party. This doctor can assess your injuries and help to determine whether or not malpractice contributed to them. 

Call a Medical Malpractice Lawyer

You don’t have to carry out the above before consulting a lawyer. This can, and should be, the first thing you do. By making this decision, you can leave the complicated tasks to the lawyer while you focus on recovering. 

 


 

Thank you to our friends at David & Philpot, P.L. for information on medical malpractice.