You emerge from your surgery with a new injury, or your doctor fails to diagnosis your medical condition accurately and timely. You may get compensation for your injury.
Did something your doctor did or did not do cause you to suffer a new injury or keep you from getting timely treatment? Call a medical malpractice lawyer in Margate, FL, at the Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine for a free consultation.
Establishing a Medical Malpractice Claim in Florida
You can get compensation for the negligence of your doctor or other health care provider. Our Margate personal injury lawyers are familiar with the procedures to follow and what you must prove to recover on a medical malpractice claim.
Examples of Medical Malpractice by a Health Care Provider
Doctors and other health care providers make errors. Consider the following examples:
- A child suffers an injury during birth because the OB-GYN applied too much pressure during the delivery or the child’s vital signs were not monitored properly.
- A surgeon severs a nerve during spinal surgery or cuts a bowel during abdominal surgery.
- A radiologist misreads an x-ray and fails to detect a cancerous growth.
- A nurse administers a medication that causes an adverse reaction.
Proving Liability of a Health Care Provider
What must our attorneys show to establish a medical malpractice claim?
- The standard of care required of the doctor or other health care provider by the medical community
- A deviation from that standard of care
- An injury caused by the deviation
Medical experts are critical in a medical malpractice case. Our attorneys will hire medical experts in a particular specialty, for example, obstetrics or cardiology, involved in your case.
Requirements Before You File a Medical Malpractice Claim
In Florida, our attorneys must serve or deliver to each health care provider a notice of your intent to file a lawsuit. The notice must include an affidavit from a medical expert stating that you have a valid claim. The expert must opine that the health care provider failed to meet the standard required and that you suffered an injury as a result.
Once you serve the notice of intent to sue, the statute of limitations (the time allowed for you to file a suit) does not run for 90 days. If the health care provider indicates he or she will not settle, then you have 60 days or the remainder of the statute of limitations to bring your suit.
Time Limits for Filing a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit in Florida
How long do you have to bring a medical malpractice suit in Florida?
- Two years from the time you know or should know of the act or omission forming the basis for your medical malpractice claim
- No more than four years from the time of the act or omission forming the basis for your medical malpractice claim
- If the health care provider fraudulently concealed the act of malpractice, two years from when you discovered the malpractice or seven years from the act of malpractice
If the case involves a minor, the time limit does not apply if you file the case before the child’s eighth birthday.
If you think your doctor caused a new injury during surgery or failed to diagnose your condition correctly, causing you more harm, call a medical malpractice lawyer at the Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine.
Compensation You Can Recover for Your Medical Malpractice Claim
What compensation can you get for your medical malpractice claim?
- Medical expenses: You get medical expenses caused by a health care provider’s malpractice, for example, the cost of more surgery. In the case of a birth injury, damages may include lifetime care for the child.
- Lost wages and earning capacity: If you are unable to work for some time because of the health care provider’s malpractice, you get compensation for your lost wages. If the doctor’s malpractice caused you to be unable to return to work or to earn the same amount of money, you get the difference in what you made before the malpractice and what you can earn in your condition after the malpractice.
- Pain and suffering: You get compensation for the pain caused by the health care provider’s malpractice.
- Mental anguish: You get compensation for any anxiety or depression you suffer as a result of the doctor’s malpractice.
- Punitive damages: In extreme cases, you can get punitive damages, or damages intended to punish an at-fault party.
Florida has no limit or cap on damages for economic damages, like medical expenses, or non-economic damages, like pain and suffering. Florida caps punitive damages at $1 million or three times the amount of your other damages.
If your child suffered an injury during birth, you received an additional injury during surgery, or you failed to get treatment because a doctor was unable to diagnose your condition promptly and correctly, contact a medical malpractice lawyer at the Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine.
Resolving Your Medical Malpractice Claim
What should you expect once you file a medical malpractice case?
- Each side will engage in a legal process known as discovery. Each party will submit interrogatories (a list of questions) to the other side to learn more about the case. Each side will disclose to the other side their experts in the case. Lawyers will take depositions during which each side will ask the witnesses, who are under oath, questions about the case.
- The lawyers may go to mediation, a process during which a person outside the court system, a mediator, will listen to each side and try to facilitate a settlement of the case.
- If the parties cannot settle at mediation, the case will go to trial.
- Our attorneys will communicate with you about the progress of the case and be accessible if you have questions.
If a doctor or other health care provider failed to give you or your child proper care, resulting in an injury or your condition being worse, call a medical malpractice lawyer in Margate, FL, at the Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine for a free consultation.
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