You might be in pain or worse due to treatment you received from a dentist or doctor, but you’ll need a malpractice expert to verify it. There might be no doubt in your mind that you’ve been a victim of criminal neglect. But it’s one thing to know it. Proving it to a jury of twelve, beyond a reasonable doubt, will take more than your injuries.
There are legal standards governing what constitutes legally actionable malpractice, even though there is some variation on that definition depending upon jurisdiction. It isn’t enough that you remember what the doctor or dentist told the patient what he or she ought to expect prior to treatment, and how long it make take. It doesn’t matter if that prognosis was written down.
A malpractice expert had better be a doctor. But it takes more than a mere medical degree. It takes specific medical knowledge relevant to your particular case, and for the non-expert even learning what knowledge is relevant will require consultation. For complex procedures like surgeries, the fault might have been the surgeons but it might also have been the anesthesiologists, hematologists, or even the physical therapists. There are companies, like American Medical Forensic Specialists, whose sole business is providing malpractice expert witnesses. They retain a “Medical Director” who can tell you what medical specialties need to be engaged, what counter-claim might be engaged, and more.
With average settlements at over a quarter-million dollars, there’s a lot of money at stake for both sides in a case. Keep in mind that the desire is not simply to meet some minimum requirement of expertise. Finally, this comes down to convincing a jury, one way or the other. It’s in both sides’ interest to retain the best-reputed, most experienced doctor possible.
Fortunately, there’s no lack of good doctors to put in time as a medical expert witness. Such service rarely takes much time out of their schedules, and there is essentially no overhead. Not only is an appearance a good chance for free advertising, they are in fact paid to testify.
One might expect the law to be uniform across the nation, but it rarely is. It varies by state, by county, and in some places even by jurisdiction inside of a specific county. If, for example, you had negligent dental work performed, you might find that in your location dentists are regulated by specific dentists’ licensing boards. However, you might find that there’s only a general board for doctors, which regulates dentists.
Wherever you might be, there will be a hard deadline before it’s too late to sue, and the clock starts ticking as soon as you’re out of surgery. It’s therefore important to begin your process soon. From the perspective of the law, the longer the period between surgery and suit, the more time for some factor other than negligent care to be the source of your malady.
Given this degree of complexity, it is to the plaintiff’s advantage to retain a good personal injury attorney. Such an attorney will have the experience to do that legwork for you, building the supports you’ll need. Your attorney will know what to look for and where to look when finding an excellent malpractice expert witness.
Malpractice expert consultants providing medical expert witnesses evaluations and expert reports.
