Understanding Your Rights to Medical Malpractice Compensation in New York
Medical
malpractice lawsuit can result in a variety of damages, including high-cost medical treatment, lost income, and other damages that are not economic like suffering and pain. A licensed New York attorney can help you understand your rights to be compensated.
First check if the injuries were caused by a medical error. You can then file a malpractice suit.
Medical expenses
The cost of medical care to treat injuries is the most obvious. It is important to know that this category of damages is limited by state law at a specific amount set in the liability policy of a healthcare provider's insurance policy. Some states also set up injured patient compensation funds to help offset the perceived cost of litigation, and also to help drive down liability premiums for providers.
In addition to medical expenses In addition to medical expenses, victims are entitled to compensation for other expenses related to the negligence. These are referred to as economic or special damages. These include the cost of medical treatment (past or in the future) necessary to treat the injury caused by the negligence as well as any income loss due to being incapable of working.
In medical malpractice cases, pain and suffering damages are also typical. The amount of damages for pain and suffering is subjective and could vary widely between plaintiffs. It includes any emotional or physical discomfort and other physical consequences due to the mistake. For instance, a plaintiff might be compensated in the event that a doctor made a mistake which caused her to not take part in a crucial cancer screening.
In certain cases punitive damages could be granted. They are meant to penalize a physician for particularly egregious behavior, like leaving a sponge in the body of a patient after surgery.
Pain and suffering
The pain and suffering category is a type of non-economic loss in medical malpractice cases. They are a way to compensate for the physical and emotional trauma that a victim suffered as a result of the doctor's negligence. The symptoms can be minor such as pain or anxiety or they may be more serious such as loss of enjoyment in life or depression, embarrassment, or fear.
It's not easy to put the value of pain and suffering, so jury instructions usually leave it to jurors to use their personal judgment knowledge, background, and experience in determining what they think is reasonable and fair. The amounts that are awarded in
Malpractice Attorney lawsuits can vary.
Your medical
malpractice lawyer can help you prove the extent of your suffering by using evidence that can be used to prove your case. Photos and X-rays, along with home models, videos and diagrams will help jurors understand the extent of your injuries.
If negligence by a doctor led to the death of a victim, family members can seek damages through the wrongful death lawsuit or through survival statutes. Wrongful death laws typically permit the spouse of a deceased victim and children to collect the same amount of compensation that they would have received if the patient had lived. Generally, however, the amount an individual victim receives is restricted by the state's damage limits for pain and suffering. It is important to find a skilled medical malpractice lawyer on your side in order to pursue the compensation you deserve.
Loss of wages
You can recover your lost wages if your absence from work due to medical negligence. This amount includes your base salary plus bonuses, commissions, and other benefits of employment. It also includes any pay raises or pay increases. Your lawyer will go through your pay stubs and previous pay statements to calculate your earnings per hour prior to your injury, and then subtract out your missing work to determine your total lost wages. Your lawyer can also help you determine your future loss of earnings by using a present value calculation. This is an analysis of your finances that analyzes the effects of your injuries into the future on your ability to earn an income. It's usually performed by a professional who is hired by your attorney.
You may also be able to recover non-economic damages, such as the pain and suffering caused by the malpractice. The jury will determine the appropriate compensation amount which varies from case to case. Certain states, however, have a limit on the amount of damages they can claim, and they've been ruled unconstitutional in a number of cases.
Settlements of seven figures are typically caused by serious permanent injuries or wrongful death resulting from extreme healthcare negligence. For instance, surgical errors that result in amputations, mistakes in obstetrics that lead to the brain of a baby and death, and anesthesia errors which cause comas can all result in high-value settlements. Punitive damages, which are designed to punish bad behaviour, may also be available in certain instances.
Damages to future medical treatment
In the case of medical malpractice, there are two types of damages a plaintiff could seek: economic and non-economic damages. The former are based upon calculable financial losses, including past and future medical expenses. The latter is more difficult to quantify and includes pain and suffering as well as loss of enjoyment of life. In a lawsuit involving medical negligence the jury is required to examine expert testimony to determine these types losses.
It is relatively easy to prove medical expenses from the past by sending actual bills given to the injured person by their health medical providers. For future costs, the lawyer representing the plaintiff will submit medical evidence to show the kind of treatment likely to be required in the near future and how much those treatments cost currently. The amount of future medical treatment required can be affected by the age of the victim at the time of the incident.
Damages for future lost wages can be proven by showing the impact of the injury on the patient's ability to work and earn in the future. This can be supported by expert testimony or by studying similar cases in the past.
Pain and suffering is a broad term that encompasses the mental and physical discomfort and stress that patients experience due to medical negligence. This kind of damage is typically based on the testimony of witnesses and victims, as well evidence such as photographs or videotapes, as well as written reports.