What is Medical Malpractice?
Medical malpractice is quite a common phenomenon in the US. To protect the rights of victims of this form of malpractice and the health industry, medical malpractice laws have been framed in the country based on the English common laws. The legal system ensures an exhaustive investigation to prove the charges’ integrity and facilitate relevant negotiations between both parties to resolve the dispute most effectively in case of any such lawsuit.
Need for a Miami Medical Malpractice Attorney
The entire landscape of medical malpractice, be it the US or abroad, is quite complicated. There are varied and multiple pieces of evidence and proofs that need to be collected, corroborated and presented to the court. The entire journey, beginning from filing the lawsuit to the final verdict, can take a substantial number of years, making the process long-drawn and time-consuming. For the patient and his family, dealing with the damages can leave very little time and energy to handle such an arduous job.
The fact that the domain is complex means that it requires someone who knows the laws and the hands-on experience to understand how best to navigate the journey. Due to all these reasons, it becomes practically essential to look for a competent Miami Medical Malpractice Attorneys. An attorney understands the complexities to guide the victim through the process, ensuring a fair judgment in the end.
The law states that the victim and his lawyer need to prove to the court that negligence has occurred on the healthcare provider’s part in caring for the patient. There are four critical elements or commonly known as the four D’s, that the patient needs to prove to the court of law in such cases:
- Duty
- Dereliction or negligence
- Damages
- Direct cause
The first point that needs to be proved to show that the patient had a medical issue and that the practitioner owed him or her a professional duty of care. The second point focuses on proving that the doctor or the hospital breached the duty of care and negligence. The third point that the patient party needs to prove to the court is that there have been damages and injuries because of negligence and carelessness. Lastly, the court requires the victim to prove the damages caused due to such injury – it could be physical, mental, or financial damages. There have been financial losses, then the jury and the judge consider economic and non-economic losses to compensate the victim.
Tracing back the history of medical malpractice in the US, it becomes evident that it has always been there, but it was only in the 1960s that the claims against such malpractices started to become regular. To prove that the patient has been given sub-standard care, timing is a critical factor. It is always advisable to start the legal proceedings against the medical practitioner as soon as possible after enough evidence to prove that there has been negligence. Contacting an established Miami Medical Malpractice Attorney ensures that the process gets started on the right note.
