All posts by admin

Filing a medical malpractice claim

If you believe you or a loved one suffered an injury or other condition as a result of negligence by a doctor, nurse or other medical professional, you may be considering pursuing a medical malpractice lawsuit. It may be difficult for you to determine on your own whether your situation can be classified as malpractice. Our team can evaluate your case and help you choose the appropriate next step.

Does your case qualify as malpractice?

In malpractice lawsuits, a patient or someone acting on behalf of the patient, such as a family member, brings charges against one or more liable parties with the goal of arriving at a settlement or court verdict. Individual healthcare providers, such as physicians, surgeons and other specialists, can be deemed liable if they make negligent surgical errors, medication and diagnosis mistakes, or neglect you as a patient. Entire healthcare practices, nursing facilities, hospitals and other entities can also be found negligent if they fail to train their staff or hire qualified personnel, or if they provide their staff with defective medical devices.

To be successful in your case, you and your malpractice attorney must prove that the liable party committed medical negligence based on all the following criteria:

A duty was owed to you (or your loved one) — Legally, healthcare providers assume duty whenever they agree to care for a patient.

The hospital or healthcare provider breached that duty — An acceptable standard of care was not met.

The breach of duty resulted in your injury. This is also known as causation.

You incurred significant damages as a result of that injury — Your medical malpractice claim is based on damages you suffer, whether they are physical, financial or emotional. For the case to have merit, you must have sustained losses warranting compensation, or you must have lost a loved one in a wrongful death fatality due to medical negligence.

Lawsuit and settlement

According to medical malpractice law, once your case gets underway, and prior to going to trial, there is an opportunity for all involved parties to participate in pretrial dispute resolution. A neutral party presides over this negotiation, and you and your medical malpractice lawyer, the liable party or parties and their lawyers, and all other relevant personnel are present. During this process, your case, which includes records of your injury or condition, is presented. You may also be required to provide supporting testimony or an affidavit from a qualified medical practitioner other than your own who can support your assertion that your healthcare provider failed to meet a reasonable standard of care. If you are able to reach a settlement during this phase, compensation is established and the case is closed. If a settlement cannot be reached, the case advances and a judge arrives at a decision. Most cases, however, do not reach trial — in fact, about 95 percent of cases settle. Our firm has extensive experience with medical malpractice cases, and can answer any questions you have about the process.

About 11,000 spinal cord injuries and another estimated 1.7 million brain injuries occur each year in the U.S., often caused by the negligence of others. Our firm has two decades of experience helping clients pursue the compensation they deserve when they sustain life-changing injuries to the brain or spine.

Causes of brain and spinal injuries

Both types of injury frequently result from common accidents such as the following:

Motor vehicle collisions

Construction site accidents, including falls from great heights or blows to the head or body

Falls on poorly maintained premises, such as wet floors, faulty carpeting or icy parking lots

Sporting accidents

The severity of injuries

The luckiest victims of head and back injuries escape with whiplash, sprains and strains, or minor concussions. But one major peril of sustaining these types of injuries is that the full extent of injury may not reveal itself for several days or even longer. Most individuals with a seemingly minor bump on the head or sore back do not seek the immediate attention needed to properly diagnose and treat the condition — and potentially keep it from getting worse.

The spine directly communicates with the brain, affecting movement and other vital functions. Both spinal cord injuries and brain injuries can result in permanent disabilities, such as paraplegia, quadriplegia, loss of sensory abilities, speech issues, and even improper operation of internal organs.

If you or a loved one sustains life-altering injuries caused in whole or in part by negligent acts of other parties, you need a personal injury attorney with extensive experience and a network of skilled medical experts who can help develop your case — and potentially help with your treatment. Our spinal and back injury lawyers have helped many clients achieve justice in these difficult cases.

Experienced lawyers can help you pursue a potential lifetime of compensation

Regardless of how minor a head or back injury may seem initially, victims need to seek immediate experienced medical attention. Experienced head and back injury attorneys can help ensure you do not pay out of pocket for expenses that range from immediate medical costs to a lifetime of medical and specialized personal care.We provide skilled and compassionate legal support to families who suffer head and back injuries.

What is premises liability?

Many serious injuries occur as a result of slip and fall accidents. Dangerous premises accidents are quite common and often occur as a result of negligence by property owners or business owners. Property owners and business proprietors have a legal duty to maintain reasonably safe conditions on their premises. When you’re injured in a premises accident, you may be able to obtain compensation in a premises liability lawsuit. With the help of a skilled attorney from our firm, you can hold the negligent property owner responsible when any of the following is true:

The property owner created a dangerous or defective condition, whether deliberately or unintentionally, that led to your injury.

The property owner knew about the dangerous or defective condition that ultimately caused your injury and did nothing to repair it or provide cautionary signage.

The property owner should have known about the dangerous or defective condition that made the premises unsuitable or unsafe and that ultimately caused your injury.

Types of premises liability accident cases

Slip and fall accidents are not the only types of accidents that can lead to premises liability personal injuries. In fact, “premises liability” is the term used to describe any accident that occurs on a property that the owner has the responsibility to satisfactorily maintain. Slip and fall law also applies to you as a pedestrian or bicycle rider if you are hurt because of an unsafe construction site or if you are bitten by an unleashed dog.

Even “slip and fall” is a broad legal term that actually encompasses the following types of premises liability accidents:

Slip and fall — You’re injured slipping on water, ice, snow, grease or other slippery materials that cover a floor or walkway lacking cautionary signage.

Trip and fall — You’re injured tripping on an object left in a walkway that should be clear, such as when a product falls off the shelf in a grocery store aisle.

Stump and fall — You’re injured stumbling over uneven pavement or sidewalk or by another object dangerously jutting out of a walkway or passageway.

Step and fall — You’re injured stepping into an unmarked hole or indentation on a walkway covered by leaves, a broken stair or other area.