If you’ve been provided with insufficient care or you’ve suffered an injury as a result of a medical provider’s mistake, you may be eligible to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. However, not every medical malpractice suit ends up winning or settling for a significant sum of money.
What are the factors that make a medical malpractice case more likely to win?
The Importance of Working With a Lawyer
A medical malpractice lawyer is going to be your best resource in this endeavor. After reaching out to a medical malpractice lawyer for an initial consultation, your lawyer will probably review the details of your case, asking critical questions so they can better understand your situation. At this point, they’ll be able to make a reasonable estimate of your chances of victory, and they’ll decide whether or not to take your case on.
If the evidence of medical malpractice in your case is flimsy, or if there are other reasons to suspect a potential loss, your lawyer will probably advise you not to pursue legal action.
If you do pursue legal action, your lawyer can work with you throughout the process, helping you collect evidence, negotiate, and take other actions to maximize the chances of victory.
The Subjective Nature of “Winning”
It’s important to recognize that “winning” a medical malpractice suit is a bit subjective. If your medical malpractice lawsuit goes to court, a judge or jury will ultimately decide the victor. But most medical malpractice cases never go to court; instead, they’re settled out of court through a process of negotiation. Accordingly, you might consider victory to be a certain dollar amount that you’re awarded – and even if you win a settlement, it may not be sufficient in your eyes.
Your medical malpractice lawyer can help you better understand the nuances of this process and what type of settlement you’ll likely receive.
The Challenges of Winning a Medical Malpractice Suit
Understand that winning a medical malpractice suit is somewhat challenging.
There are several reasons for this, including:
- High burden of proof. In our society, we greatly value medical professionals, and we hold them in high regard. We assume that they know what they’re doing, and we do what we can to protect them as professionals. Accordingly, there’s a relatively high burden of proof for medical malpractice. You probably won’t win a lawsuit against a doctor unless you have a ton of evidence against them.
- Conflicting testimony. Court cases sometimes boil down to a “battle of the experts.” In these scenarios, both the plaintiff and the defendant have access to experts in a given field who directly contradict each other. In medical malpractice cases, this usually means one doctor believes the course of action was reasonable while the other doctor doesn’t. This can make it hard to persuade a jury either way.
- “Reasonable” action. Doctors are allowed to make mistakes, as long as those mistakes are reasonable, given the medical knowledge they have or should have had. Accordingly, not every misdiagnosis or surgical error is going to be worthy of a settlement.
What Medical Malpractice Cases Are Likely to Win?
So what types of medical malpractice claims are likely to win?
That depends on several factors:
- Type of case. Certain types of medical malpractice claims are stronger than others. If a surgeon leaves a foreign object in your body, for example, you’ll probably have a much stronger case than someone who was misdiagnosed with a condition very similar to the condition they actually had.
- Severity of injury/harm. Juries and judges will also consider the severity of the injury or harm you experienced. It’s possible for a doctor to commit a mistake or mistreat you in some way that doesn’t objectively injure or harm you. However, it’s also possible for even a tiny mistake to lead to severe injury or even death.
- Total weight of evidence. The total weight of the evidence also factors heavily. You need to be able to establish that your medical professional had access to all the information necessary to commit to the best course of action. Your medical professional will also be working to gather their own exculpatory evidence. To win a claim, the total weight of the evidence needs to be in your favor.
- Expert testimony. Expert testimony from other medical professionals is very valuable in a medical malpractice case. If most other medical professionals are on your side, you’ll have a much better chance of winning.
Not every medical malpractice claim is going to win a settlement or in court. But if you better understand the circumstances of your medical malpractice claim, and you work with a good lawyer, you’ll be in a much better position to achieve the results you want.