Whether you are a medical professional or someone who has been injured by a doctor’s mistake, it is important to find a Seattle lawyer for your case. These lawyers are experienced in handling the complex issues that may come up during a medical malpractice lawsuit and can provide the support and guidance you need.
Medical malpractice is when a medical professional fails to uphold their duty to care for patients. This failure can cause serious injury, illness or even death. This can include a misdiagnosis, errors during surgery, medication mistakes and even improper care during pregnancy.
To file a Find a Seattle lawyer for medical malpractice claim, you will need to prove that the medical professional breached their duty of care, that this breach caused your significant injuries and that those injuries are the direct result of your serious injuries. In addition, you must show that your damages are reasonable. For example, you can seek compensation for pain and suffering, past and future, as well as any medical bills you incurred.
In a medical malpractice case, you may also be entitled to compensation for loss of consortium and loss of companionship. You can also seek punitive damages in some cases.
A claim for medical malpractice is usually filed within three years of the date of injury or death. However, many people do not discover that they have been a victim of medical malpractice until much later. For this reason, Washington law allows for a one-year “discovery rule” that extends the statute of limitations to the date you discovered or reasonably should have discovered your injuries were the result of malpractice.
For a lawsuit to be successful, you must be able to demonstrate that the defendant medical professional failed to uphold their duty of care and that this breach was the direct cause of your serious injuries and illness. This is often easier said than done, as there are a number of factors that need to be considered in order to determine negligence.
You must be able to show that you had an official doctor-patient relationship with the defendant, for instance. If you went to a party and ate raw chicken as part of a joke, you could not file a medical malpractice lawsuit because this wasn’t an official medical consultation in the context of an official doctor-patient relationship.
The medical professional must have known about the risks of their treatment. If they did not, this qualifies as malpractice. In some instances, the injuries themselves may be so serious that they speak for themselves. For example, you go to the hospital to have a hernia repaired and they accidentally remove your gall bladder. This is a clear case of malpractice because the injuries are so severe that they would not have occurred but for the negligence.
It is also possible to hold the manufacturer of a medical device or drug responsible for your injuries if they did not adequately warn you about the potential dangers or instruct you on how to use it properly. A Seattle medical malpractice lawyer can help you determine which parties are responsible and who is at fault.
Moseley Collins Law
701 5th Ave Suite 4200
Seattle, WA 98104