The Medical Malpractices Blog

Each year hundreds of thousands of patients step forward with medical malpractice stories of injuries they have suffered such as misdiagnoses, medication errors, surgical errors, limbs that were amputated, to name a few.  Each story is unique however, they all have one thing in common, and the damages suffered were all devastating.  The trauma the patients all have suffered, such as emotional upset or financial losses, cannot be undone very easily.

Medical Malpractice Stories in the News

At any time, finding malpractice stories in the news about medical negligence being the cause of an individual’s (including babies and children) devastation is often seen.  These stories also tell about the legal consequences of medical negligence.

Share Your Medical Malpractice Story with an Attorney

The appropriate course of action depends on the circumstances of the individual’s medical malpractice stories.  They may have the right to file a lawsuit.  There are laws, both state and federal that give the individual the right to hold the negligent party responsible for their actions.

A victim may be entitled to some compensation for the losses they had to bear.  For this reason, individuals who have been wrongfully harmed by a doctor, nurse or other medical staff should share their stories with an expert attorney.  A professional medical attorney can:

• Evaluate the claim to determine if a lawsuit is a possible course of action
• Establish the amount of damages that could be sought in a lawsuit – for example, damages for medical expenses, lost wages and mental anguish.
• Negotiate a settlement with the responsible party(s) if possible
• Act as an advocate for the client throughout the legal process

Malpractice cases have strict time limits called statute of limitations.  If you think you have a claim; share with an attorney your malpractice stories immediately.  Failing to do so may forfeit your rights.

Medical Attorneys: We will Listen to Your Story

Medical malpractice attorneys have many years experience and have heard these stories from individuals all over the United States.  These stories include misdiagnoses of cancer, birth injuries, lab errors and more.  Attorneys helped obtain compensation for their clients.  Attorneys will listen to medical stories related to malpractice to determine if you are eligible for compensation.

Evaluations are offered at no cost, they will hear your stories and they will answer any relevant legal questions and advise you of your rights.

Many citizens and almost everyone in the medical profession is quite concerned with the escalating costs of malpractice insurance and the number of medical malpractice lawsuits. Most people in the medical profession would agree, that the legal profession only exists because the medical profession is there to feed on for these legal eagles, and top litigating attorneys. In a way, they might be right, although that is a sad state of affairs for every citizen and everybody that needs medical help.

It is estimated that 35 to 45% of whatever you pay on your medical bills is attributed to the insurance costs, or the additional paperwork, or the additional tasks that doctors must do to try to avoid medical malpractice lawsuits. If somehow we could cut out these legal filings against doctors, or make them much more difficult to file, we could perhaps fix the medical industry and drop the cost nearly 50%.

This is not to say that some medical mistakes are not clearly problematic, and should not be dealt with. Rather, we need to turn the tables on medical malpractice. And believe it or not, it is not just about doctors anymore, many attorneys are going after nurses, because the doctors are now represented by defense medical malpractice attorneys that are quite good.

Every nurse in every hospital is also covered under medical malpractice because the HMO, hospital, or medical facility can afford to take the hit in case there’s a problem. This causes the nurses to spend lots of extra time doing paperwork when they could be helping other medical clients. This again raises the cost, and we all end up paying for it. Please consider all this. But

I am now retired but have spent 30 years practicing the specialty of General Surgery. As a board-certified specialist, I have been aware of the many problems our medical colleagues face. I believe the public is not aware of the pressures that are being applied to the medical community.

The public wonders why doctors are leaving the state to practice in a state with lower malpractice rates. They wonder why so many people are leaving the profession, and retiring early. They don’t realize, or perhaps do not want to concern themselves, with the fact that malpractice rates are rising – mostly because of frivolous law suits or suits without merit. Insurance payments have been reduced, incredibly, and Medicare has continued to reduce their benefits.

This is a gigantic squeeze play, where many practitioners feel that, as their office expenses and overhead continue to rise, and their income continues to decrease, they are unable to practice medicine. Most of these people began their medical career with high ideals and these have been trampled upon to the present day. What was once considered a challenging, but wonderful calling for life, has now become second rate and the best people are smart enough not to go into medicine.

One sad story immediately comes to mind. This is the story of a good OB GYN doctor who was a bachelor. And as a result, medicine was the biggest thing in his life. He took all comers to his office regardless of their ability to pay. He had a high percentage of non-payers. He continued to do this, and as a result, had a very large practice. Therefore he had more operations than most and more exposure to potential medical legal problems.

Because of these facts he had more than a certain number of lawsuits that the insurance company would accept. I don’t know the number of frivolous lawsuits or lawsuits without merit, that were brought against this physician, but I do know that the doctor was a very competent man. His insurance company dropped him.

When the insurance company dropped him he could no longer practice because the hospitals require a practitioner to have a large amount of insurance. This is to protect the hospital because when the doctor gets sued, they sue everybody who could potentially be involved. That includes the hospital. In that case, when both the hospital and the doctor get sued the hospital will, many times, take the brunt of the problem because of their “Deep Pockets”. This means that the lawyers will come after the hospital because they have more assets than an individual Doctor. The end result was that this physician could no longer practice medicine. He was a very good man, and in fact, many of the doctors would send their wives to him for treatment because they knew of his competency.

This is one of many sad tales. It is one of the things to think about when, in the not too distant future, an individual is unable to find a doctor willing to do necessary surgery.

Online degrees are becoming increasingly popular in the legal business, and the medical malpractice attorney profession is no exception. Depending on where you live you may be able to get a complete education through distance studies, while you in other states may be able to at least take some of your courses online. Here we will investigate this particular avenue of legal malpractice closer.

The first thing you will need to check out is whether online classes are indeed acceptable in your area, in order to become a legal malpractice professional. In the US some states allow online studies only for those who have already passed their bar exam, while others allow at least part of the full studies to take place online.

It also goes without saying that you should only enroll at a school that has been officially credited. This is something you can easily check with the US Department of Education.

The Future Of Online Education

Because of the considerable costs of keeping a campus building up and running, more and more pressure is being applied to organizations to accept online degrees, even for something rather advanced like a medical malpractice attorney. There are some online schools such as the Concord Law School that will even offer a Juris Doctor (JD degree), which is the lawyer’s equivalent of a doctorate.

Although a very flexible and affordable alternative, the online medical malpractice degree is by no means cheap. Nor is it in any way easier to acquire than it would be to physically attend at university. Getting your malpractice degree online will still require thousands of dollars, quite possibly bank loans and definitely lots of hard work.

Another profession where this kind of education is rapidly gaining popularity is among paralegals. Paralegals are attorney assistants and are often employed by private law firms, public interest and legal aid organizations, corporations, banks, and government agencies. They are important members of the legal team, playing important key roles in the legal process.

As the strong points of online education in advanced fields such as medical malpractice become more apparent – while the problems that may be encountered are dealt with at the same time – one would imagine that is will become an even more widely used way to get and/or keep your degree.