Understanding Your Rights to Medical
malpractice lawsuit Compensation in New York
Medical malpractice can result in a variety of expenses, including costly medical care, lost income and non-economic damages like suffering and pain. A licensed New York attorney can help you understand your rights to be compensated.
First decide if your injuries were caused by an error in medical care. You can then file a malpractice suit.
Medical expenses
The most obvious expense associated with malpractice is that of medical care needed to treat the results of the injuries. It is important to know that this category of damages is capped by law of the state at a level established in the liability policy of a healthcare provider's insurance policy. Certain states also have injured patient compensation funds to offset the cost of litigation and to help drive down liability premiums for providers.
Victims are entitled to compensation in addition to medical costs when negligence is found to be a contributing factor. These are known as economic or special damages. These include the cost of medical treatment (past or in the future) needed to treat the injury caused by the malpractice as well as any income lost due to being not able to work.
Damages for suffering and pain are typical in medical malpractice cases. This category of damages can vary widely between claimants and is a subjective matter. This includes emotional distress, physical pain as well as other non-physical consequences of the error. A plaintiff, for instance, could be compensated if an error by a doctor which caused her to not attend an important cancer screening.
Finally, punitive damages are also possible in some cases. They are intended to penalize an individual doctor for the most egregious actions, like leaving an unclean sponge in the body of a patient after surgery.
Pain and suffering
Pain and suffering is a type of non-economic damage in medical malpractice cases. They cover the emotional and physical trauma a victim endured due to the negligent doctor's actions. The symptoms could be mild such as pain or anxiety or they can be severe such as loss of enjoyment in life, depression, embarrassment and fear.
It's difficult to establish an exact dollar amount on suffering and pain, so jury instructions usually leave it up to the jurors to make use of their own judgment as well as their background and experience in determining what they believe is reasonable and fair. Therefore, the amount of money paid in malpractice cases vary greatly.
Your medical
malpractice law firms attorney can help you demonstrate the extent of your suffering using evidence that is demonstrably backed by. X-rays and photos, along with home models, movies and diagrams can assist jurors in understanding the extent of your injuries.
If a doctor's malpractice resulted in the death of a patient's family members, the heirs may recover damages through survival statutes, or wrongful death lawsuits. The law governing wrongful death allows the spouse and children of the deceased victim to receive the same compensation they would have received if the patient survived. The amount that a victim can receive is typically limited by the state's limits on suffering and pain. This is why it's important to have a knowledgeable medical malpractice attorney on your side to ensure you receive the amount of compensation you're entitled to.
Lost wages
If you have to miss work due to medical negligence You are entitled to recover the lost wages. This amount includes your base salary, bonuses, commissions and employment benefits. It also includes any pay increases or increases in pay. Your lawyer will go through your previous pay stubs to determine your average earnings prior the injury. Then, subtract the lost work from that figure to determine your total lost wages. Your lawyer can also assist you in determining the future loss of earnings using a present value calculation. This is a complex analysis of financials that considers the effects of your injuries on your capacity to work in the future, and it's usually done by a professional hired by your attorney.
In addition to compensating for your economic losses, you may also seek non-economic damages to compensate for the pain and suffering caused by the incident. The jury will decide the appropriate compensation amount for these damages, and it could vary widely from case instance. Certain states, however, have limits on the amount of damages they can claim, and they've been ruled unconstitutional in a number of cases.
Seven-figure settlements are typically associated with serious permanent injuries or deaths caused by extreme healthcare neglect. For instance, surgical errors that result in amputations, birth defects that result in the brain of a baby and death, and anesthesia errors that cause comas could all be the reason for high-value settlements. In certain instances, punitive damages may be used to punish bad conduct.
Damages for future medical treatment
In a medical
malpractice lawsuit there are two types of damages a plaintiff can pursue: non-economic and economic damages. The first is based on measurable losses such as the past or future medical costs. The latter is more difficult to quantify, and includes pain and suffering as well as loss of enjoyment. In a case of medical negligence the jury will hear expert testimony to assess the losses of these kinds.
Past medical expenses are relatively easy to prove by providing actual bills from the victim's health medical providers. The attorney for the plaintiff will submit medical evidence to show what procedures are likely be needed in the future, and what they will cost today. The amount of medical treatments required could be affected by the victim's age when they were injured.
The court can award damages for future lost earnings is possible if you can show how the injury affected the patient's earning capacity and ability to work. This could be substantiated by expert testimony or studying similar cases in the past.
Pain and suffering is an umbrella term that covers the physical and mental discomfort and distress that patients suffer as a result of medical negligence. This kind of damage is typically based on the testimony of witnesses and the victim as well as evidence such as photographs of videotapes and written reports.