Medical Malpractice: Legal Redress Against Professional Negligence

Medical malpractice is one of the subsets of tort law, the series of legal decrees that cover personal injury and litigation laws. Legal claims against health care providers must be able to establish professional negligence or lack of reasonable care in a health care setting, and any injury or damages caused to the patient is compensable in a court of law.

Who Can be Sued
When it comes to health care, one assumes that only those professionals who handle the bulk of patient-facing services are liable to medical malpractice. In reality though, any individual or organization that is directly or indirectly involved can be sued, including the actual health professionals offering patient care services such as diagnosis and treatment as well as the hospitals and even managed care corporations that they work for.

Establishing Negligence
The negligence tort covers a range of legal evidence that must be established in a court of law. Unlike other lawsuit that charges an individual or group with laxity or lack of care, the medical malpractice case comes pre-defined with a duty of care that is automatically owed to the plaintiff by the defender. Since one assumes that a certain level of service is due, the lawsuit must be able to clearly demonstrate that the standard of care provided was below par and that the lack of proper attention caused injury, either directly or in the long term.

Professional wrongdoings are inherently complicated and since the plaintiff is the one bringing the charges to court, it is the responsibility of the claimant and their attorney to prove lack of care by the health provider. Given the sensitive nature of most patient records and heath-related information, establishing liability is perhaps the most significant part of the lawsuit. Once the case comes to trial, it is important to bring in qualified expert witnesses who will be able to testify to the lack of care on the part of the physician or health care professional charged with negligence.

Why Negligence is Debatable
Medical malpractice lawsuits are highly controversial and are the subject of much debate in terms of their legitimacy and rationale. To help clarify the underlying issues, the initial claim may have to be submitted to a review panel for examination and analysis on the actual validity of the charge, depending on the state where the lawsuit is filed.

Tort reform has been a highly publicized area of legalese in the country, wherein the downsides to frequent lawsuits have been highlighted. Several managed care organizations and insurance giants have opined that defending the array of suits and the huge outlays paying damages has actually caused significant peaks in health care costs. To this end, most states have set in place statutory caps on the maximum compensation that can be awarded regardless of the degree of injury caused or projected.

Medical malpractice is a specialized arena with a wide array of amendments and past judgments that can significantly impact the verdicts on any lawsuit filed by a plaintiff. Hiring a competent attorney who brings experience in personal injury is crucial to favorable judgment, which ensures appropriate compensation to the claimant.