Understanding Your Rights to Medical Malpractice Compensation in New York
Medical malpractice can lead to various losses, such as expensive medical expenses, loss of income and other damages, such as suffering and pain. A qualified New York attorney can help you learn about your rights to be compensated.
First consider if your injuries were caused by an error in medical care. You can then file a malpractice suit.
Medical expenses
The cost of medical care to treat injuries is the most obvious. It’s important to realize that this category of damages is capped by law of the state at a limit set by the health care provider’s liability insurance policy. Some states also set up injured patient compensation funds to offset the perceived cost of litigation and to lower the cost of liability insurance for providers.
In addition to medical expenses, victims are entitled to compensation for other expenses that are a result of negligence. These are referred to as special or economic damages. They cover the costs of any medical procedures (past and future) which are required to address the injury resulting from the malpractice, as well as any lost income due to not being able to work because of the injury.
In medical malpractice cases, pain and suffering damages are also typical. This type of compensation is a subjective one and can vary dramatically between different plaintiffs. This includes physical pain, emotional distress and other non-physical effects of the mistake. For instance the plaintiff could be paid for a mistake by a doctor which caused her to miss an important cancer screening appointment.
Additionally, punitive damages are also possible in certain cases. They are designed to punish the doctor for particularly indecent behavior, for example, leaving a sponge in a patient after surgery.
Suffering and pain
In medical malpractice cases the pain and suffering of the victim is one of the types of non-economic damages. The damages cover the physical and mental trauma that the victim endured due to the negligence of the doctor. The symptoms may be minor like discomfort or anxiety or they may be more serious like a loss of pleasure in life as well as depression, embarrassment or anxiety.
It’s hard to determine a dollar amount on pain and suffering, so jury instructions typically leave it up to the jurors to rely on their own judgment as well as their background and experience in determining what they think is reasonable and fair. This is why the amounts paid in malpractice cases vary significantly.
Your medical malpractice lawyer will assist you in proving the severity of your pain using demonstrative evidence. Photographs and X-rays along with home movies, models and diagrams can help a juror understand the extent of your injuries.
If negligence by a doctor led to the death of a patient, the survivors can seek compensation through the wrongful death suit or statutes. Laws governing wrongful deaths typically permit the spouse of a deceased victim and children to recover the same types of compensation as they would’ve received had the patient survived. The total amount of damages that a victim can receive is typically limited by the state’s caps on pain and suffering. This is why it’s so important to have a knowledgeable medical malpractice lawyer on your side to fight for the amount of compensation you’re entitled to.
Lost wages
If you are absent from work due to medical malpractice you may be able to recover your lost wages. This includes your base pay bonus, commissions, employment benefits, pay raises, and retirement fund contributions. Your attorney will review your pay stubs and previous pay statements to calculate your average earnings before the injury, and then subtract the lost work to calculate the total loss of earnings. Your lawyer can also help you determine your future loss of earnings using a present value calculation. This is an analysis of finances that looks at the consequences of your injuries in the future on your ability to earn a living. It’s usually performed by a professional hired by your attorney.
In addition to compensating for your economic losses, it is also possible to get non-economic compensation to compensate for pain and suffering that was caused due to the malpractice incident. The jury will decide on the appropriate compensation amount for these damages, and it could vary from case to situation. Certain states, however, have a cap on these damages, and they’ve been struck down as unconstitutional in several cases.
Seven-figure settlements typically involve serious permanent injuries or deaths that result from extreme medical negligence. For malpractice instance, surgical errors which result in amputations or obstetric errors leading to the brain of an infant and death, and anesthesia mistakes which cause comas can all result in high-value settlements. In certain cases, punitive damages may be available to punish the bad behavior.
Damages for future medical treatment
In a medical negligence case the plaintiff may seek economic or non-economic damages. The first is based upon calculable losses, such as past or future medical expenses. The latter are more difficult to quantify, and includes the pain and suffering as well as the loss of enjoyment of life. In a case of medical malpractice law firm, the jury will need to hear expert testimony to determine the kind of losses.
Past medical expenses are relatively easy to prove with actual bills from the person who was injured’s health medical providers. The attorney representing the plaintiff will present medical evidence to prove what treatments are likely to be required in the near future, and how much they will cost in the present. The amount of future medical treatments required could be affected by the victim’s age at the time of the malpractice.
The damages for lost wages in the future can be established by proving the impact of the injury on the patient’s capacity to work and earn in the future. This may be supported by expert testimony or reviewing similar cases from the past.
Pain and suffering is an umbrella term that encompasses the mental and physical discomfort and stress that patients suffer as a result of medical negligence. This kind of claim is typically based on the testimony of the victim and other witnesses and other evidence like photos, videos and written reports.