Residents of Monroe County often seek treatment at facilities such as Highland Hospital, Lakeside Memorial Hospital, Rochester General Hospital, Strong Memorial Hospital, and Unity Hospital. When you have a set of symptoms and go to the doctor to receive a diagnosis and care, you trust that you will be in better shape after receiving treatment than you were before. Unfortunately, doctors and other health care providers do make errors, even when faced with life or death decisions. These errors can cause catastrophic injuries or even death. There are a number of complicated procedural rules that plaintiffs must follow. If you suspect that you were a victim of medical malpractice, you should consult the Monroe County medical malpractice lawyers at DeFrancisco & Falgiatano.
Pursuing a Medical Malpractice Claim for CompensationMedical malpractice happens in the context of a health care provider-patient relationship. Your doctor and other health care providers owe you a professional standard of care. If you are injured because a health care provider departed from the professional standard of care, you may have a medical malpractice claim. Not every error is a departure from the professional standard of care, and not every error causes injuries.
In most cases, laypeople cannot determine on their own whether a doctor's conduct departed from the professional standard of care. There are some cases, of course, in which a layperson knows for certain that medical malpractice occurred. For example, if you experience a "never event," a serious adverse medical event that should never happen, such as your arm being amputated instead of your leg, you know that you were a victim of malpractice. But in most cases, it is necessary for a medical malpractice attorney in Monroe County to retain an expert even before filing a lawsuit to review records and other evidence and to form an initial opinion about what the professional standard of care was and whether a departure from those standards caused your injuries.
To show that an expert's opinion is reliable, we will need to show that the expert has the necessary training, skill, knowledge, education, or experience to provide an opinion. While the expert does not need to be a specialist in a particular field, we often do retain board-certified specialists as experts. What is necessary under the law is that the expert has the requisite knowledge to make a determination on the issues presented by your case.
However, there are other nuances to selecting an expert, such as whether the expert can capably present complicated technical information to a jury in a way that makes sense. Not every board-certified physician makes a good expert witness. An experienced and highly qualified practitioner may not necessarily know how to translate his or her knowledge to a jury of laypeople in a way that will help them to understand the issues in a case. This is one reason why it is important to retain an experienced Monroe County medical malpractice attorney to handle your case. Among other things, we work with experts who are credible and competent at presenting before a jury.
If liability is established, it may be possible to recover damages. The amount and extent of the damages can vary significantly depending on the nature of the injuries. For example, economic and noneconomic losses for a baby who develops cerebral palsy due to malpractice during the labor and delivery process may include medical treatment, rehabilitation, loss of enjoyment of life, and pain and suffering. Parents may also be able to recover damages for their own losses in a birth injury case, including wage loss, medical bills, and pain and suffering. Damages cannot be speculative, and in some cases, it is necessary to retain experts to establish the effects of the injuries on a patient's life.
Consult an Experienced Medical Malpractice Lawyer in Monroe CountyIf you suspect that you were harmed by medical malpractice, you should consult the skillful trial attorneys at DeFrancisco & Falgiatano. We also represent patients in Syracuse, Rochester, Binghamton, Auburn, Elmira, Norwich, Cortland, Delhi, Herkimer, Watertown, Lowville, Oneida, Wampsville, Utica, Canandaigua, Oswego, Cooperstown, Ithaca, and Lyons. Call us at 833-200-2000 or contact us via our online form.