What Should You Do While Making An Injury Claim Due To Medical Malpractice
Injuries that occur due to negligence in the treatment or wrongful diagnosis of the disease by a medical practitioner can call for a medical malpractice suit.
Medical malpractice includes any sort of mishandling or negligence in the treatment or diagnosis of a patient which may cause unprecedented injury or suffering to the patient.
While medical malpractice cases are pretty common and may cause the practitioner to lose their license for further practice, depending upon the type of malpractice, you may have to deal with the situation differently.
Depending upon the province, and the laid statutes by the province, the conduct of malpractice may differ. Nevertheless, there are a few common checks that you should make sure of while making a claim for an injury caused due to medical malpractice.
#1 Hire An Attorney
Hiring an attorney in the first place can help assure that you are on the right path. Your attorney may need certain details about the injury you’ve sustained. You should explain to your attorney what, how, when, and where it happened.
Sharing these minute but important details with your attorney can ensure that you don’t make any mistakes. Your attorney will develop your case, investigate for proofs and truth, convince witnesses on your behalf, accumulate important pieces of evidence, and file and proceed with your case in the courtroom trials.
An important feature of hiring a personal injury lawyer is that these people work on a contingency basis. In other words, they don’t charge you any fees if you don’t win the claim.
#2 Intimate The Medical Professional Involved
Before you proceed with filing your claim, you should intimate the medical professional involved. The objective is not to seek any compensatory benefits. You should consult your medical practitioner to ensure the cause of injury caused.
In most cases, medical practitioners would offer a remedial procedure to follow and cure your injury. The interesting fact is that these remedial procedures would be carried out at no extra cost. Unless or until the medical practitioner denies you any solution to your problem, you should at least intimate them.
Or otherwise, you already have an attorney and they are very good at it. An important fact that you should not neglect is that the medical practitioner must have a strong reason to deny you the remedy you believe you deserve.
Justin Kimball from PreszlerLaw-NS.com says that even if an occupier fails to meet the standard of reasonable care, the plaintiff must still prove that this negligence led to their injury. In other words, even if you prove that the medical personnel has misconducted the practice, you still need to prove that this misconduct caused you your injury.
#3 Evaluate The Merits Of Your Case
Many states and provinces have now mandated getting a merit certificate in a medical malpractice suit, to begin with. A merit certificate is simply a testimony from another medical practitioner of the same status, as the defendant.
This certifies that the injury caused to the plaintiff is due to the negligence or misconduct of the standard medical procedures in the associated diagnoses and treatment.
You can easily understand the importance of this merit certificate. It already gives you an advantage against your defendant when you are fighting a suit in a court of law.
Nevertheless, your attorney can help you evaluate the merits of your case and procure you the certificate from a certified medical practitioner.
#4 Contact The Relevant Medical Board Or Authorities
If getting a merit certificate seems difficult or somehow, the medical practitioner denies you the compensatory services and treatment you can reach out to the relevant medical board or authority.
Although the board or the authority cannot force the medical practitioner to compensate for your injury or even bar their license, they can still help by issuing warnings or taking disciplinary actions against the defendant.
They can also help strengthen your case and claim henceforth. The more the authorities are involved in your case, the more you have in your favor. Medical malpractice cases are not simple. The complexity and delicacy of these cases make them pretty disturbing for everyone involved.
This is due to the fact that almost all of these cases are associated with life and death scenarios and hence are abstractly exhausting especially for the plaintiffs and their relatives.
#5 Consider Other Options Than Fighting A Lawsuit
As already mentioned, the sensitivity of medical malpractice cases is unmatched to any other personal injury claim. The unprecedented situation that one has to bear just because of misconduct or negligence of such a highly responsible professional raises brows on the nobility of the profession.
And even more exhausting could be the amount of stress that one has to go through in legal proceedings. Unless there is no other option, one should prefer to settle the claim outside the court.
Your legal attorney can help you with that in just the right way. Out-of-court settlements are easy and save you time and not to forget the emotional turmoil. Of course, you can follow the legal procedures and make your claim through the court, but it would require a lot of patience and trust in your attorney.
Also, you should consider the expenses on court fees and other legal documentation, and don’t forget the attorney’s fees. Although all of these expenses would be compensated by the defendant if your claim is approved, what if it does not?
And during the court proceedings, there are unaccounted expenses. It is always better to seek other options for quick and hassle-free relief from the suffering and pain.
Final Thoughts…
Considering the complexity and sensitivity of medical malpractice cases, you should not try to rush into anything. Proper investigation and following the proper chronological order of steps put forward by the authorities can ensure a satisfactory resolution.
No one should ever have to go through the trauma of losing their loved ones or for that matter even suffer because of someone else’s negligence.
And of that negligence comes from a professional as noble as the medical representatives, the trauma is increased manifolds.