Medical Malpractice Settlements
It can be difficult to get the full amount of compensation for medical malpractice. Patients who suffer from malpractice are required to negotiate with the physician accused and their insurance company who are legally known as defendants.
Victims are entitled to compensation for their damages but how do judges and juries calculate a case's value? This article will examine the key aspects that make up a malpractice settlement.
Damages
In general the case of a settlement for medical malpractice is made up of two types of damages: economics and non-economics. Economic damages are based upon calculable losses such as medical bills and future costs. Non-economic damages include the effects of pain and suffering, disfigurement and loss enjoyment of living.
In negotiating a medical malpractice settlement, you and your attorney will work with economists and other financial experts to determine the value of your losses. For example, if you were permanently disabled due to an error of a physician and you are unable to work, the value of your future income loss must be calculated as well. This is called the present value, and it's a complicated calculation for which your lawyer will hire experts to help.
For this reason, it is important to have an expert medical
malpractice lawyer to represent you. Depending on the severity of your injury you could be able to claim thousands or millions in compensation.
Many kinds of medical malpractice cases have an impressive settlement value that include the omission of diagnoses, prenatal errors that cause maternal suffering and minor surgical mistakes. However, some malpractice cases have lower settlement values. These could include allergic reactions that were treated by medication or a minor error in surgery where the damage was not serious. These types of injuries are less likely to cause an ongoing disability, so they don't warrant the same level of compensation as a more serious injury that will require regular treatment.
Costs of litigation
As with all malpractice cases there are a myriad of factors that affect the value of a settlement for medical malpractice. These include economic damages which are the amount of your past and future costs resulting from the medical malpractice case, as well in non-economic damages.
The first includes any medical bills that you have incurred and the costs of future treatments, as well as any lost wages due to being off work because of your injury. The latter is a form of compensation for the pain, suffering and diminished quality of life you've endured as a result of the negligence that caused your injury. Non-economic damages typically are dependent on the severity of your injury, which is determined by the use of a seriousness factor (also called a multiplier) that can vary between two and five.
Although it could appear as if
malpractice attorney lawsuits are dragging doctors to court to make frivolous claims however, the reality is that malpractice suits only account for 0.3% of healthcare costs and are necessary to ensure patients get the medical treatment they need. Most medical malpractice cases are settled outside of court by attorneys who determine an acceptable amount of money.
The location of your claim will also affect the value of your claim. State laws determine the value minimum for a medical malpractice case. Jurors in Baltimore City, Prince George's County and Montgomery County, for example are more favorable to victims of medical negligence.
Attorney's Fees
In the majority of medical malpractice cases your lawyer will work on a contingency-fee basis. The attorney will not be paid until you have a settlement, verdict or award through negotiation or trial. This can be an excellent option to get top-quality legal representation without having to think about the initial expenses of hiring an attorney in the typical situation.
If a malpractice case is successful, the attorney will be charged a specific percentage of the amount you receive in compensation. It is usually 33%, however it can differ based on the skill and experience of the medical malpractice lawyer. Since your lawyer is only paid if they are able to recover funds for you their interests are aligned with yours. They will always work hard to increase the amount you receive in your malpractice settlement.
This arrangement can be beneficial to certain victims, but it can be detrimental for those dealing with medical malpractice cases. Having a fee arrangement that places the financial interests of lawyers against the interests of their clients is detrimental to the relationship between lawyer and client. This type of fee structure creates an incentive for lawyers to tell clients to settle their cases for less than what they are worth. This could be harmful to many clients.
Settlements Outside of the Courtroom
Despite what you may see on television, almost 90 percent of viable malpractice cases settle out-of-court with the assistance of lawyers computing a reasonable monetary settlement. This is due to the fact that insurance companies are more likely to settle out of court rather than engage in costly litigation.
During the medical malpractice settlement negotiations the injured claimants seek compensation for both economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages refer to future and past medical expenses, which include medications or rehabilitation therapy. They also cover lost wages due to time away from work as a result of the medical negligence.
Non-economic damages are aimed at addressing mental anguish, and loss of quality. Mental anguish refers to extreme emotional distress, which may cause post-traumatic disorder anger, apathy, and apathy. Loss of enjoyment of life can be caused by the inability to exercise, sleep, or maintain healthy relationships.
Many doctors and insurers believe that malpractice lawsuits are creating an unjust trend of increasing settlements. However, research and statistics indicate that medical negligence claims are only 0.3 percent of healthcare costs.
In addition the option of settling a case outside of court allows the victim to keep their privacy and avoid public disclosure of what happened to them. Contrarily, a trial makes the victim reflect on their experiences and may expose the victim to harsh judgments from others. It is vital that victims think through the possibility of settling their case out of court.