Understanding Your Rights to Medical Malpractice Compensation in New York

Medical malpractice can lead to numerous damages, including high-cost medical bills, lost income and damages not based on economics, such as pain and suffering. A qualified New York attorney can help you determine your rights to be compensated.

First, determine if your injuries resulted from an error made by a medical professional. Then you can pursue the legal process of a malpractice legal suit.

Medical expenses

The most obvious cost related to malpractice is that of medical care required to treat the injuries that result. It is important to know that this category of damages is capped by state law at a level established in the liability policy of a healthcare provider's insurance policy. Certain states also have established injured patient compensation funds in order to help offset the costs of litigation and to help health care providers reduce their liability insurance costs.

Victims can claim compensation in addition to medical expenses when negligence is found to be the cause. These are referred to as special or economic damages. They include the cost of any medical services (past and future) that are necessary to treat the injuries resulting from the malpractice compensation, as as any lost income because of being unable to work due to the injury.

Damages for pain and suffering are also common in medical malpractice attorneys cases. The amount of damages for pain and suffering is a subjective one and can vary dramatically between different plaintiffs. It covers any emotional or physical discomfort as well as other physical effects caused by the mistake. For example the plaintiff could be compensated for a doctor's mistake that caused her to miss a crucial cancer screening appointment.

Finally, punitive damages are also possible in certain instances. These are meant to punish a physician for particularly egregious conduct, such as leaving a sponge inside a patient after surgery.

Suffering and pain

In medical malpractice cases there is pain and suffering as a form of non-economic damages. The damages are for mental and physical trauma the victim endured due to the negligence of a doctor. The symptoms may be minor like anxiety or discomfort, or they may be more serious like a loss of pleasure in life or depression, embarrassment, or anxiety.

It is difficult to assign a value on the amount of suffering and pain, the jury instructions generally leave it up to the jurors. They can rely on their judgment, background and experience to decide what they believe is fair and malpractice Compensation reasonable. Therefore, the amount of money given in malpractice cases can vary in a wide range.

Your medical malpractice settlement attorney can assist you in proving your injuries through evidence. Photographs and X-rays as well as home models, videos and diagrams will help jurors understand the extent of your injuries.

If a physician's mistake caused the death of a patient's family members, the heirs can seek damages through survival statutes or lawsuits. The law governing wrongful death allows the spouse and children of a victim who died to receive the same amount of compensation they would have received had the patient survived. In most cases, however the amount that a victim is able to collect is limited by the state's damage caps for suffering and pain. This is why it's important to have a knowledgeable medical malpractice attorney on your side to ensure you receive the compensation you deserve.

Lost wages

If you have to miss work due to medical negligence, you can recover lost wages. This includes your base salary plus bonuses, commissions, and other benefits of employment. It also includes any pay raises or increases in pay. Your attorney will review your pay stubs for the previous year to calculate your average earnings before the injury, and then subtract out your missing work to determine the total loss of wages. Your lawyer can also assist you in determining the future loss of earnings by using a present value calculation. This is a sophisticated financial analysis that looks at the impact of your injuries on your capacity to work in the future, and it's typically performed by a professional hired by your attorney.

In addition to compensating for your economic losses, you could also seek non-economic damages to compensate for pain and suffering caused by the malpractice incident. The jury will decide on the appropriate amount of compensation for these damages, which can vary widely from case case. However, some states have a limit on the amount of damages they can claim, and they've been struck down as illegal in a variety of cases.

Settlements of seven figures are usually related to serious permanent injuries or wrongful death caused by extreme medical negligence. Settlements with high value may be granted for, among other things, surgical mistakes which cause amputations, or brain damage to infants and mothers, as well as anesthesia errors that can cause comas. Punitive damages, intended to punish bad behavior could also be a possibility in certain cases.

Damages for future medical treatments

In the case of medical malpractice there are two kinds of damages a plaintiff could 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, which includes suffering as well as loss of enjoyment. In a medical malpractice lawsuit the jury will have to hear testimony from experts to determine these kinds of losses.

It is fairly simple to establish past medical expenses by sending actual bills given to the injured person by their health healthcare providers. The lawyer representing the plaintiff will provide medical evidence to show what procedures are likely be required in the future, and what they will cost in the present. The amount of future medical care required could be influenced by the age of the victim at the time of the incident.

Damages to future wages can be proven through showing the impact of the injury on the patient's capacity to work and earn in the future. This can be proved by expert witness testimony or by examining similar cases in the previous.

Pain and suffering is a umbrella term that covers the physical and mental distress and discomfort that patients experience due to medical negligence. This kind of injury is typically based on testimony of witnesses and victims and evidence such as photos videos, audiotapes, and written reports.