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Will You Get Justice In A Medical Malpractice Case?
Irene Robertson
When someone hires a medical malpractice lawyer, they are often upset and want to see the system deal justice to the at-fault parties. It's important to understand what sort of justice there will be and what might not happen. The folks at a medical malpractice law firm will want you to be aware of the following issues.
Justice in Terms of Civil Law
A medical malpractice claim or lawsuit is fundamentally a civil injury case. Foremost, that means you should have zero expectation of the court imposing criminal penalties or jail time on anybody. That doesn't rule out criminal activity, but any criminal case is seen as entirely separate from the civil proceedings. However, charges are generally reserved for the worst of the worst conduct in medical practice.
What you should expect is an attempt to make things right. The goal of civil injury law is to try to put things back as close to the way they originally were as possible. That is an ideal goal, and the law accepts that you can't realistically expect, for example, to put an amputated leg back. Instead, the goal is to fairly compensate the victim for the value of their injury.
Compensation
The core of what a medical malpractice lawyer does is obtaining compensation for their clients. In terms of what justice might come from a case, compensation is where it mostly will be found.
A successful claimant or plaintiff can expect to obtain compensation to cover any medical bills associated with what happened. If someone needed corrective surgery following a botched laser eye procedure, for example, the cost of the corrective surgery would be included in the compensation. Notably, any health insurance provider that paid for the corrective work would have the right to place a lien on that portion of the settlement or judgment.
You can also demand compensation for pain and suffering. Someone who had a surgical instrument left in their body after a procedure, for example, would be able to seek money to cover the misery that followed from it.
Loss of life enjoyment is compensable, too. If a doctor prescribed you the wrong drug and it left you with respiratory and pulmonary damage, you could insist on compensation for the reduced ability to engage in activities that are enjoyable. This includes the benefits of parenting, married life, and hobbies.
In rare lawsuits, there may also be punitive damages. This is a form of compensation meant to punish egregious conduct, such as a doctor deliberately doing something wrong, being wantonly reckless, or making a highly medically unethical decision.
To learn more, contact a medical malpractice lawyer.
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