When you or someone you love is experiencing a medical emergency, the last thing on your mind is the possibility that you’ll suffer more because of a negligent doctor’s decisions. When, however, the emergency is made worse because of a medical professionals actions, it’s possible medical malpractice could be involved.
Whether you’re heading to the doctor for an annual physical or you’re being admitted to undergo surgery, paperwork is involved. Sometimes, that paperwork is lengthy and often uses medical jargon that the average person doesn’t understand.
As a patient, it’s important to understand what your rights and obligations are when you enter into a medical facility. While that information should be explained to you clearly, that doesn’t always happen. In order to get a better idea of what all that paperwork means, let’s take a look at what you need to know about signing a waiver at a hospital.
Medical malpractice is one of the most complex areas of personal injury litigation. If you’ve been injured as a result of a medical professional’s negligence, filing a claim can help you recover from your losses. Proving negligence and fault, however, is not an easy task. Medical terminology is confusing and without the proper breakdown, proving injury can seem impossible. When you work with a lawyer from Pittman Roberts & Welsh, PLLC, we have the ability to bring an expert witness in to speak on your behalf and prove you were wronged. Let’s take a look at what an expert witness does in a medical malpractice trial.
If you’ve been injured by a government agency, you can take legal action to hold the entity responsible, just like you can file a claim against any person or business. Taking action against a government agency, whether it be city, town, county, state, or federal, is a more complex matter. Claimants need to follow specific steps and abide by all deadlines.
In general, bringing a case against a government agency involves shorter time limits, strict notice requirements, and the possibility of immunity. There are a number of ways a person can be injured by a government employee or agency. If, for example, you were injured by a negligent physician while being treated at a federal hospital, you wouldn’t be dealing with a typical medical malpractice claim.
To build a strong case against a government agency and be awarded the compensation you deserve, it’s important to understand how suing an entity like that works and what factors could impact your claim.
Physicians and medicine have been mentioned in some of the earliest laws ever discovered by historians. Medical malpractice litigation spans back thousands of year. There’s even a Babylonian code dating back to 1794 BC that mentions the repercussions for medical mistakes and promoting the idea that doctors should face punishments if they wrongfully harm a patient.
In the United States, however, the first case came about in 1794 after a patient died during an operation. The victim’s husband brought the case forward and won because the physician did not operate as skillfully as promised. After that, there was a large increase in med mal claims and the American Medical Association was founded. The litigation process has been designed to promote extensive discovery and negotiations between the opposing parties to encourage a resolution without going to trial.
