You trusted your medical providers, and now you’re paying the price for their mistakes. A misdiagnosis, a missed diagnosis, a medication mistake, or a surgical error can leave you with severe injuries, a worsened medical condition, and a poor prognosis. In some instances, victims of this medical malpractice are unable to recover from their injuries, with some of them passing away as a result.
If you or a loved one has been harmed by medical negligence, then legal action is warranted. Success on a medical malpractice case can bring you a sense of justice and much needed compensation to offset losses like medical expenses, rehabilitation costs, and lost wages. But the process can be more complicated than it seems.
While you’ll certainly have to gather and present compelling evidence in your case if you want to win, you’ll also want to make sure you’re not stepping into any pitfalls that could jeopardize your claim. Let’s take a closer look at some of those costly mistakes so that you know what you need to avoid.
Common errors made in medical malpractice cases
Although you might think that most unsuccessful medical malpractice cases simply don’t have legal sufficiency, the truth is that many denied claims are lost because of mistakes made by victims themselves. This includes:
- Waiting too long to file a claim: Your medical malpractice case has to be filed within a certain period of time. If you delay too long in taking legal action, then you’ll be barred from pursuing your case, leaving you with nothing to show for the damages that you’ve suffered.
- Neglecting to secure medical records: To succeed on your medical malpractice claim, you have to show how your medical provider breached the applicable standard of care. That can be hard to do if you’re unsure what actually happened to you. Your medical records can provide valuable insight, though, as medical errors might be clearly documented and you spot red flags of medical mistakes that ultimately led to your harm.
- Consulting with the wrong experts: Expert testimony is usually necessary in a medical malpractice case. After all, you need someone from the medical profession to opine as to how the standard of care was breached and how it could’ve been easily avoided. But there are a lot of experts out there, so you need to choose yours carefully. If you don’t, then the jury might not find their testimony credible, especially if the defense offers their own expert testimony. So, take the time needed to thoroughly vet your options when it comes to expert witnesses.
- Not understanding your case’s weaknesses: A lot of people who have been harmed by medical malpractice set out to get as much as they can from their medical provider. You should certainly fight for what you deserve, but you shouldn’t let your drive blind you to the weaknesses of your case. If you do, then you could pass up favorable settlement options for a trial, which could lead to a lower or even completely barred recovery. Therefore, you need to fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of your case before moving forward with your claim.
Don’t be your own worst enemy in your medical malpractice case
Your future is on the line in your medical malpractice case. If you mishandle your claim, then you could be left with a stunted recovery and unsteady financial footing. To avoid that kind of outcome, research the best way to build a medical malpractice case and figure out how to aggressively to apply the law to your set of circumstances.