Knowing When You Need A Medical Malpractice Attorney

Not everything that happens with a missed diagnosis or mistake that a doctor makes is medical malpractice but knowing when to contact a malpractice attorney is important. If you suspect you are a victim of malpractice, you need to take a serious look at the situation and consider all the facts. A call to a medical malpractice attorney is the best way to get the information you need and understand what rights you have.

What Is Medical Malpractice?

To truly understand if you have a case for medical malpractice, you need to understand what malpractice is. A mistake made by a doctor is not always malpractice. Sometimes it is just that, a mistake. In order to be considered malpractice, you must prove negligence on the part of the doctor or medical professional and it has to result in injury or harm to the patient. It is not always easy to prove the doctor knew their actions were negligent and if you can't, you may not have a case.

What To Do If You Suspect Negligence

If you believe that you have been a victim of negligence, this is a good time to talk to a lawyer that specializes in medical malpractice. They will want to have all the details of the case so take the time to explain everything that happened in detail. Be sure that you are not embellishing anything when you talk to the lawyer. You don't want to face charges if you get caught in a lie in court. It will also undermine your credibility in the eyes of the court and jury. Document the situation and be clear and honest throughout the entire process.

Medical Responsibility

What happens if your case is not malpractice? There is the potential that the doctor can still be held responsible civilly so talk to your lawyer about what options are available to you. There may be many other paths to explore depending on what occurred. A failure of an implant, a medical device that stopped working, or something that happened not as a result of the doctor's actions but after a procedure or treatment may fall into a completely different area of the law.

Finding a Lawyer to help you

You can look for a lawyer in the yellow pages or online and take the first one you find but if you do, don't expect to get the best results. Take the time to check out several lawyers. Talk to friends and family that have used a lawyer for a similar case. Once you have a couple of lawyers that have been recommended to you, take the time to talk to them and see if they will consider taking the case or not. To learn more, contact a law firm like Shaevitz Shaevitz & Kotzamanis


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