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Chicago Injury Lawyer Scott Wolfman & Associates - Law Firm

Medical Malpractice Tips

Medical malpractice claims are among the most difficult and expensive of all types of personal injury cases. Almost all malpractice claims against health care providers require expert testimony by physicians, nurses or other professionals in the same specialty as the defendant. There are many important issues that are taken into consideration in a medical malpractice case.

There are primarily two things that need to be proven in a medical malpractice case:

That the health care provider was negligent. This means that the provider deviated from the normal standard of care for that particular type of medical provider, which includes hospitals, medical doctors, osteopaths, chiropractors, and most other types of health care professionals.
That the damages were "proximately" caused by the malpractice. Unlike a simple accident case, in which the accident causes the injuries, most plaintiffs are already injured or ill at the time they are victimized by medical malpractice. In addition, causation must be proved to a reasonable degree of medical probability, meaning that simply the possibility or conjecture of malpractice is generally not sufficient. It must be shown that as a result of the alleged malpractice, the patient sustained some injury or aggravation of an existing condition. For example, if a patient visits the doctor for an annual checkup and is deemed healthy, but a month later is found to have terminal liver cancer, the patient doesn’t have a malpractice case because the doctor’s negligence didn’t result in the patient’s injury or condition. It was there anyway, and detection a month earlier probably would not have made a difference.