Tompkins County Medical Malpractice

Tompkins County has its county seat at Ithaca. Some of its major hospitals include Cayuga Medical Center at Ithaca, Cortland Regional Medical Center, Lourdes Hospital, UHS Binghamton General Hospital, Wilson Memorial Regional Medical Center, and Auburn Memorial Hospital. There can be serious repercussions if you have been injured by medical malpractice, so it is crucial to hire an experienced Tompkins County medical malpractice lawyer who can protect your rights. It is rare for anyone to have enough savings to address the full range of losses if they become catastrophically ill or injured as a result of a doctor or nurse's failure to follow the professional standard of care. Most people need to pursue damages from those responsible for the injuries. However, it is not always straightforward to get the damages to which you are entitled. At DeFrancisco & Falgiatano, our skillful trial attorneys can pursue damages on behalf of clients who suffer injuries at the hands of doctors and others in the health care profession.

Prior to bringing a medical malpractice lawsuit, your attorney is required to speak with a knowledgeable health care expert. The health care expert will look at a client's medical malpractice records, as well as any other relevant evidence, to review whether there is a reasonable basis to bring suit on the client's behalf. Once we have completed a consultation, we would file a certificate along with the complaint that kicks off the lawsuit, according to the mandate of Rule 3012-a.

Rule 3012-a requires a medical malpractice attorney in Tompkins County or elsewhere in New York to draft a certificate stating that they went over the facts of the case and talked to a health care expert with a license to practice medicine, it is their reasonable belief that the expert knows about the medical issues relevant to your claims, and based on the consultation, they have determined that it is reasonable to sue. There may be several health care providers and hospitals that had a role in the medical malpractice, but only one certificate is necessary.

It can take time to get that certificate and ensure that your case is properly worked up. Although you typically have 30 months from the acts that made up the medical malpractice to sue the entities responsible, you should consult us as soon as you realize that you may have been a victim of medical malpractice. In certain circumstances, the clock is shrunk or enlarged for medical malpractice cases. For example, if a surgeon leaves a foreign object inside a body cavity, you have one year from the date that you learned that it was there or from the date of learning facts that would reasonably result in your discovering that the foreign object was abandoned in a cavity.

To establish medical malpractice, your Tompkins County medical malpractice attorney will need to prove that there was a doctor-patient relationship, the defendant breached the professional duty of care, causation, and actual damages. It is usually easy to establish the doctor-patient relationship. However, we will likely need to retain an experienced and credible expert to explain to the jury what the professional standard of care was and how it was breached by the defendant.

Damages that you may be able to recover include economic and noneconomic losses arising from the injuries caused by the malpractice. They may include medical bills, lost wages, lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, mental anguish, and loss of consortium. The extent of the damages depends on the nature and severity of the injuries. In most cases, only compensatory damages, intended to put you back into the position in which you were prior to the malpractice, will be awarded.

If you have been injured because of medical negligence at a health care facility, such as a medication error or a misdiagnosis, our law firm may be able to help you recover damages from the responsible parties. Call DeFrancisco & Falgiatano at 833-200-2000 or contact us via our online form.