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Staying healthy requires a lot of help from doctors. We rely on medical professionals to care for us, but sometimes things go wrong. Doctors and other medical professionals should be held accountable for their harmful negligence.
Medical malpractice involves serious mistakes by medical professionals that cause harm to patients. These mistakes must come from negligence to be considered malpractice. A negligent doctor might act contrary to how a reasonable doctor is supposed to act. When this happens, medical malpractice often involves serious injuries and long-lasting disabilities.
If you were injured at the hands of a physician or other medical professional, our Fort Wayne, IN medical malpractice lawyers can help you get compensation. Call Wruck Paupore at (219) 322-1166 for a free initial case evaluation.
Medical malpractice involves mistakes made by a doctor or other medical professional that cause a patient’s injuries. These mistakes must happen in specific ways to qualify as malpractice, typically stemming from mistakes or techniques that do not conform to the appropriate standard of care.
Malpractice is often shown by examining the relevant standard of care. Doctors and medical professionals must treat patients according to certain standards, which vary based on the specific area of medicine involved and the type of treatment being provided. If a doctor fails to meet the standard of care in the specific case, the patient might have a malpractice claim. A malpractice claim may also exist if a medical provider fails to get your informed consent prior to a medical procedure, including fully advising you of potential risks.
It is important to understand what mistakes do and do not constitute malpractice. For example, it could be malpractice for a doctor to perform a dangerous medical procedure that reasonable doctors would have avoided. It could also be malpractice if the procedure was appropriate, but the doctor failed to warn the patient of potential complications. Likewise, the procedure could be performed by the doctor in a negligent way that did not conform to established standards.
On the other hand, if the doctor did everything according to standards, but the patient suffered an injury anyway, this might not constitute malpractice and could just be an unfortunate complication which is a risk of the procedure.
Like many other lawsuits, a medical malpractice lawsuit begins with a complaint. Your legal complaint will include allegations about what you believe went wrong with your medical treatment, who is to blame, and the remedies you want from the court. Our Fort Wayne, IN medical malpractice attorneys can help prepare your case to obtain a settlement for the full value of your injury or prepare your case for trial if necessary.
Medical malpractice cases are unique because they require another important step before beginning. According to Indiana Code § 34-18-8-4, a medical review panel must be convened and render an opinion on your case before we can proceed with a lawsuit.
We must request a medical review panel no less than 20 days after filing your complaint in court. The panel is comprised of three medical professionals and a lawyer who will review records and evidence submitted to them about your case. Upon reviewing your situation, the panel will issue an opinion on whether the defendant failed to act according to the appropriate standard of care.
The opinion issued by the panel is not legally binding. Should the panel issue an opinion that does not favor your case, we can still proceed with your lawsuit. Remember that the opinion may be used as evidence later in your trial. Thus, if the panel determines that the standard of care was not met, we may use the opinion to support your claim for damages.
A complaint in a medical malpractice lawsuit must be filed within two years under Indiana Code § 34-18-7-1. If this time limit passes, you might lose your right to bring your claims to court.
Damages include losses and injuries the plaintiff experienced because of the defendant’s negligence. In a medical malpractice case, damages may encompass new injuries caused by a doctor’s negligence and increased medical costs. Intangible damages like pain and suffering can also be factored into your damages calculations.
Damages in a medical malpractice case can be very high. As such, damages are capped under Indiana Code § 34-18-14-3(a)(5). For medical malpractice cases arising after June 30, 2019, damages are capped at $1.8 million. Of these damages, a doctor’s insurance company may not be liable for more than $500,000. All remaining damages are paid from Indiana’s Patient’s Compensation Fund, a governmental entity charged with compensating victims up to the statutory maximum.
Our Fort Wayne, IN medical malpractice attorneys can help you assess your damages and maximize your compensation. While your economic damages (e.g., medical bills, lost work time, etc.) may be more clear, your non-economic damages (e.g., pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life) are more intangible. While these losses may not be able to be quantified to an exact dollar amount, they are often the most significant part of your legal claim and require skilled attorneys to document how your injuries have impacted your life and those around you.
Winning a medical malpractice case is similar to other personal injury cases based on negligence. Proving a defendant was negligent requires proving four important elements: duty, breach, causation, and damages. Our Fort Wayne, IN medical malpractice lawyers can help you prove these elements in your case.
Duty refers to the care your doctor owed you as their patient. We must show that your doctor assumed responsibility for your treatment and was obligated to provide medical care according to the appropriate standard of care. We must also show what the standard of care was. Remember, the standard will look different depending on what kind of treatment was provided and what symptoms and situations presented themselves.
A failure to meet the standard of care is a breach of the defendant’s duty of care. Proving this breach will require bringing in a medical expert who can testify about the relevant standard of care in your case and how the defendant’s actions failed to meet that standard.
Causation is about proving that the defendant’s breach of duty was the direct cause of your injuries.
Finally, your damages must be real. You cannot claim hypothetical damages in a malpractice lawsuit; you must have actually faced injury.
If you believe you suffered injuries because of medical malpractice, you should contact an attorney immediately. Our Fort Wayne, IN medical malpractice lawyers can help you hold negligent doctors liable for your injuries. Call Wruck Paupore Injury Lawyers at (219) 322-1166 for an immediate case evaluation at no cost.
Don is a founding partner and one of the nation’s top-ranked personal injury litigators. He is a member of the Multi-million Dollar Advocates Forum, which includes less than 1% of the nation’s trial lawyers, and awarded the highest ranking given by Martindale Hubbel and AVVO.
More importantly, Don understands representing personal injury victims is about more than recovering the best settlement: it’s about helping clients get back on their feet and supporting them in every aspect of their recovery.
In nearly all cases, our clients seek compensation from the wrongdoer’s insurance company. Before forming Wruck Paupore, Jason worked for a prominent law firm representing some of the world’s largest insurers. This experience gives Jason a deep understanding of the insurance industry and the strategies it uses to pay injury victims as little as possible.
Jason -- and our entire team -- put this inside knowledge to work to force insurance companies to pay what is actually owed. Often, we use the insurance company’s own tactics against them as we fight for the full compensation our client deserves.
For more than four decades, Keith has been fighting for injury victims. During that time, he’s watched the insurance industry change, with insurers now more interested in protecting their stock price than treating injury victims fairly.
Since the beginning, Keith has put people first. From his childhood in Gary, Indiana during the 1960’s and working his way through law school, Keith has risen to become one of the Midwest’s most respected trial lawyers. He has never forgotten that being a lawyer is about helping people -- and seeing injury victims through struggles in a way that could change their lives forever.
Over the decades, Keith, Don and Jason have fought relentlessly for clients, even when other lawyers have said the case was impossible to win.
Contact Us:
Wruck Paupore P.C.
Injury Lawyers
275 Joliet St. Suite #250
Dyer, IN 46311
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