Northern California Medical Malpractice Lawyers
Medical Malpractice
If you believe you may have been the victim of medical malpractice in Northern California, you should meet with an experienced Orinda medical negligence attorney at Balamuth Harrington, LLP as soon as possible to discuss the facts of your case and receive a professional evaluation of your situation.
In the United States, we trust physicians and hospitals to do their best to help us when we have an illness or injury. And usually, we can be assured that years of experience and training will result in excellent treatment. But in truth, health care providers are only human and errors are always possible. Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor, surgeon, nurse or other medical professional makes a mistake that hurts a patient.
Medical negligence includes errors in diagnosis, treatment, and illness management. If such errors cause injury to a patient, a medical malpractice case could arise against a doctor if his or her actions deviated from generally accepted standards of practice or against a hospital for improper care, such as problems with medications, sanitation or nursing care.
Medical malpractice laws are designed to protect patients' rights to pursue compensation if they are injured as the result of negligence. However, San Francisco medical malpractice suits are often complex and costly to win. While theoretically, you can seek compensation for any injury caused by negligence, regardless of its seriousness, time and money make it unrealistic to sue for an injury that is minor or resolves quickly. Therefore, if you believe you have a California medical malpractice claim, it is important to consult with an Orinda medical malpractice attorney who can help you determine whether your malpractice claim is worth pursuing.
Proving Your Case
Most malpractice cases proceed under the theory that a professional was negligent in treating the patient. To establish medical negligence, you must prove:
- That the professional owed you a duty, for example, a doctor/patient relationship existed;
- That the professional deviated from the applicable standard of care, which is deemed a breach of the duty owed to you;
- That the professional's deviation from the standard of care caused the injury; and
- The extent of the injury suffered.
One of the most important aspects to establish in a malpractice action is the standard of care to be applied to the professional. Medical professionals often refer to medicine as an art, rather than a science. Errors in judgment may result in serious injury to a patient and not all medical errors are actionable as negligence.
To establish the standard to be applied to the health care provider, a plaintiff must present expert testimony from someone qualified in the same area of medicine as the defendant. The expert must testify to the level of care that is commonly met by those recognized in the profession as being competent and qualified to practice. The plaintiff must present expert testimony describing the applicable standard of care and also establishing that the defendant failed to meet that standard.
Another element of medical malpractice actions that can be challenging to establish is causation. Specifically, the plaintiff must show that the defendant's deviation from the applicable standard of care resulted in injury. This is challenging because sometimes the professional's deviation from the standard of care may not have caused the plaintiff's eventual injury.
Legislation Affecting Malpractice Actions
The health care industry is very powerful in California. More than 30 years ago, it used that power to get legislation passed that makes it more difficult to bring and prevail in medical malpractice actions. Physicians and hospitals are protected by legal limits, called "caps," on the amount of damages that can be awarded in malpractice suits. These caps have a devastating effect in some cases because they can severely limit what a plaintiff may recover. In limited cases, there are creative ways to get around or maximize these caps. It is important to hire a Bay Area medical malpractice attorney well-versed in medical malpractice law in order to have the best chance of maximizing your recovery.
Responsible Parties
Medical malpractice can be committed by several types of health care professionals. In a case where a hospital employee commits malpractice, the hospital itself may be held liable under the legal doctrine of "respondeat superior." Under this theory, an employer may be held liable for the negligent acts of its employee if the employee was working when the negligent act or omission occurred. This doctrine is very important to plaintiffs in Northern California medical malpractice cases, because it helps ensure there will be a financially responsible party to compensate an injured plaintiff.
In some situations, commonly involving attending physicians working in hospitals, health care providers are considered independent contractors rather than employees, which makes the doctrine of "respondeat superior" inapplicable. What this means is, if a doctor or other health care professional is an independent contractor and commits malpractice while treating a patient in a hospital, the hospital cannot be held liable for the doctor's negligence. However, the hospital can be held liable for its own negligence, for example, in granting attending privileges to an unlicensed or incompetent physician.
Medical Malpractice Verdicts & Settlements:
Listed below are verdicts and settlements obtained by the Law Office of Balamuth Harrington, LLP on behalf of medical malpractice victims:
Case Name: Ramon Doe v. Hospital
Recovery Range: $2,000,000 - $3,000,000
Case Name: Carol Doe v. Doe Doctor; Doe Medical Group; Doe HMO
Recovery Range: $1,000,000 - $2,000,000
Case Name: Amelita Doe v. Big HMO
Recovery Range: $650,000 - $1,000,000
Case Name: Sid Doe v. Big HMO
Recovery Range: $400,000 - $650,000
Case Name: Kelly Doe v. Hospital
Recovery Range: $400,000 - $650,000
Case Name: Mr. & Mrs. Doe v. Psychiatric Facility
Recovery Range: $400,000 - $650,000
Case Name: Bruce Doe v. Hospital
Recovery Range: $400,000 - $650,000
Case Name: Doe Parents v. Hospital; Obstetricians
Recovery Range: $250,000 - $400,000
Case Name: Jeffrey Doe v. Doctor
Recovery Range: $100,000 - $250,000
Click here for more information about these medical malpractice verdicts and settlements.