Georgia Medical Malpractice Law Firm
The standard to determine whether your doctor was negligent is well established by Georgia medical malpractice law.
Health care professionals and hospitals are responsible for compensating a patient injured as a result of medical malpractice. Medical malpractice suits can arise under the following circumstances:
- Against a government agency that operates hospitals or provides specified medical care.
- Against a hospital for administering improper or overdoses of medication, negligent nursing care, inadequate sanitation, infection, or equipment failure.
- Against a physician, who in the general practice of medicine, deviates from the general accepted standards of practice in the community.
- Against a medical specialist who deviates from a nationally accepted standard of practice for specialists in that field of medicine.
Proving Medical Negligence
The first element that must be established in a Georgia medical malpractice lawsuit is negligence.
A doctor is responsible for providing a standard of care equal to the doctor’s training and experience under a particular set of circumstances. The standard of care, however, changes depending on a number of factors specific to your situation. Although medical malpractice is really a form of negligence, it must be proven through the use of expert witnesses since the issues involved almost always require specialized knowledge and skills which are beyond those of the average lay juror.
Of course, the defense will hire its own experts in an effort to defeat your case. In medical malpractice, the jury is usually left to decide which side’s experts offer a more credible explanation of the doctor’s conduct and whether it fell below the “good and accepted” standard of care required under those circumstances.
Establishing the Doctor Caused Your Injury
The second element that must be established in a Georgia medical malpractice lawsuit is proving causation.
Even if you prove that your doctor was negligent, (that the doctor’s conduct fell below the standard of care required under those circumstances), you must still prove that his or her ”departure from good and accepted medical care” caused the injury.
Defense lawyers and the experts they hire are skilled in finding creative ways to assert that the injury was caused by some other event that is not connected with the doctor’s mistake.
In fact, in many cases, a position often taken by the defense is to claim that the injury would have occurred regardless of the malpractice.
By taking this position, the defendant can actually concede that malpractice was committed and then say “So what”.
Again, this element becomes a “battle of the experts,” and the jury is left to make the ultimate decision.
Securing Compensation for Medical Malpractice
The last element that must be established in a medical malpractice lawsuit is proving how your doctor’s negligence has damaged you. Possible damages include past and future medical bills including specialized medical care for life, past and future lost wages, and pain and suffering.
If you or a loved one have been injured as a result of a medical mistake or medical malpractice contact a Georgia Medical Malpractice Attorney at The Strom Law Firm, LLC today for a no cost consultation to see how we can help. (912) 264-6465
