Watertown Medical Malpractice

Watertown is a city in New York about 25 miles south of the Thousand Islands. Located in the central portion of Jefferson County, its population was 27,023 as of 2010. It is also home to the Watertown Regional Medical Center and Samaritan Medical Center. If you've suffered injuries as a result of medical negligence in Watertown, you may be facing huge expenses and an inability to work. Most people don't have enough saved in case of catastrophic illness or injury, and few families have enough saved up in case one wage-earner is accidentally killed as a result of a doctor or nurse's error. Tort reform has made it very challenging to obtain damages for medical malpractice, and there are a number of requirements you must meet. Whether you believe you've experienced urology malpractice, ENT malpractice, or some other harm at the hands of a medical practitioner, the experienced Watertown medical malpractice attorneys at DeFrancisco & Falgiatano may be able to help you seek compensation.

One of the first steps your lawyer should take in determining whether to take legal action against a healthcare provider on your behalf is to review your medical records and other information about your case. You will also need to provide the records and information to an experienced and qualified medical expert. The expert will need to review all available evidence to determine whether there's a reasonable basis to sue for medical malpractice. For example, if you're alleging that an ENT physician failed to order appropriate tests to diagnose throat cancer, you would likely need to consult with an ENT physician expert about what the standard of care was in your case and whether your health care provider breached that standard such that it caused you harm. A knowledgeable medical malpractice lawyer in Watertown could assist you in this process.

In order to sue, you'll need to file both a complaint and a Rule 3012-a certificate. The certificate must say you reviewed the facts, discussed it with a health care expert licensed to practice medicine and that you have a reasonable belief that he or she knows about the medical controversies that make up your claim, and that because of the consultation you believe it's reasonable to sue. You only need to file one certificate even if multiple health care providers and clinics or hospitals allegedly participated in the medical malpractice.

You have two and a half years from the acts you believe constitute medical malpractice to sue for medical malpractice damages. However, it can take significant time to find and consult the appropriate expert. There are some instances in which the two and a half year time period is shortened or lengthened.

Once you institute a medical malpractice lawsuit with the help of a Watertown medical malpractice attorney, you'll need to establish medical negligence by a preponderance of the evidence. This requires us to show: (1) there was a doctor-patient relationship, (2) the defendant failed to meet the professional standard of care, (3) actual and proximate causation, and (4) actual damages. While in most cases, it is straightforward to show the doctor-patient relationship exists, it can be difficult to prove what the professional standard of care was in connection with the particular circumstances and to show that a breach of that standard of care is what caused the damages. Causation can be particularly tricky because the defendant may argue that your harm are from the medical condition and that the harm is a natural progression, rather than the result of the defendant's negligence.

You may be able to recover any economic or noneconomic losses that are the result of your injuries. This may include amounts for lost wages, medical bills, lost earning capacity, mental anguish, pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of activities.

If you were injured or a loved one died as a result of medical malpractice in Watertown, you should consult an experienced attorney. We may be able to help you recover damages from all the parties potentially responsible for the injuries you suffered due to medical negligence. DeFrancisco & Falgiatano represents injured patients in Syracuse, Rochester, Auburn, Elmira, Binghamton, Norwich, Delhi, Herkimer, Cortland, Watertown, Lowville, Wampsville, Oneida, Utica, Canandaigua, Oswego, Cooperstown, Ithaca, and Lyons. Call us at 833-200-2000 or contact us via our online form.