Erie County Medical Malpractice

Erie County, located on the shore of Lake Erie in western New York, is home to many different hospitals and medical practices. As of 2020, these practices serve around 954,236 people in the county. Hospitals and medical practices in the area include Lockport Memorial Hospital, Millard Fillmore Suburban, Mercy Hospital, St. Joseph Hospital, Mercy Ambulatory Care Center, Sisters of Charity Hospital Kenmore Mercy Hospital United Memorial Medical Practice, DeGraff Memorial Hospital, and Mount St. Mary’s Hospital. If you were harmed by a health care provider’s professional negligence, you should call an experienced Erie County medical malpractice lawyer. DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Attorneys may be able to help you. Over 30 years we have sought best results and won more than $100 million in awards and settlements.

We will work up your medical malpractice case even before filing your complaint in court to kick off litigation. There are procedural hoops associated with medical malpractice lawsuits, which makes it important to retain legal counsel. Rule 3012-a requires our attorneys to file a certificate attesting to not only our review of your case, but also our consultation with a medical expert who is licensed to practice medicine. The medical expert must review your records and the facts to figure out whether you have a claim. We can only file your lawsuit if we conclude from that consultation there are reasonable grounds for you to sue. There are exceptions for instances in which we cannot get the consultation before filing within the statute of limitations. The statute of limitations is 2 ½ years from the actions we believe constitute medical malpractice.

In special cases, such as when a foreign object has been abandoned within your body during surgery, you’d have only 1 year from the date you realized it was left there or you learn facts that would reasonably result in you investigating and finding out a foreign object was left in your body.

Not every mistake made by Erie County doctors are considered actionable medical malpractice. To sue, we would need to show by a preponderance of the evidence each of the following elements: (1) the defendant was your health care provider such that he or she owed you a professional duty, (2) departure from the professional duty, (3) causation, and (4) damages. The professional duty of care is not the same in every situation. The expert we retain must be credible on the issue of what the professional duty of care was for the particular provider; this depends on the specialty and geographic region of the provider. So, for example, if your primary care physician failed to refer you to get lab work or a dermatologist for a suspicious mole and as a result failed to diagnose skin cancer we’d need to show that the primary care physician failed to live up to the accepted practices for Erie County primary care physicians.

After a complaint is filed because you have a prima facie case, our firm will need to establish you’re entitled to damages by conducting discovery. Many civil lawsuits settle, but others do need to be taken to trial. It is crucial to hire an Erie County lawyer who works with credible experts and who understands the accepted practices of health care providers in the area and which experts are likely to testify credibly on your behalf.

If you were a victim of medical malpractice in Erie County, you should consult a seasoned lawyer who understands who to build and mount cases against professionally negligent health care providers. DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Attorneys has years of experience representing injured patients and their families in Lowville, Buffalo, Canandaigua, Lyons, Albany, Rochester, Auburn, Binghamton, Watertown, Herkimer, Oswego, Wampsville, Ithaca, Cooperstown, Oneida, Utica, Elmira, and all of Upstate New York. We’ve sought best results for 30 years. For a free consultation, complete our online form or call us at 833-200-2000.