Medical Malpractice in Miami, FL

Are You a Victim of Medical Malpractice?

If you have suffered harm or lost a loved one because a healthcare provider was careless, you may be entitled to substantial compensation. Our malpractice lawyers at HLG know that each time we win a significant damage award for a client, we not only help them personally, but we make healthcare safer for our community through accountability.

Establishing the Liability of a Negligent Health Care Provider

Simply put, medical malpractice occurs when a medical professional or healthcare provider needlessly endangers a patient in a way that results in serious injury or death.

Medical experts and malpractice lawyers would probably describe it as medical care or treatment which fell below the acceptable standard of care and resulted in damages.

An individual can bring legal action—a medical malpractice lawsuit—against the physicians, surgeons, or hospitals who provided this "substandard medical care," so long as several key elements are present.

First, as the plaintiff—that is, as the person bringing the lawsuit against the negligent health care provider—you have to prove that the defendant—the doctor, nurse, therapist, surgeon, clinic, hospital, lab, etc.—owed you a professional duty.

Next, a plaintiff also must present evidence demonstrating the health care provider’s breach of that duty also known legally as negligence or malpractice. Negligence doesn’t refer to the provider’s personality. They may have been cordial or even friendly, but that’s not what’s in question. Negligence means that the medical professional’s treatment did not rise to the appropriate standard of care for the particular medical condition.

To demonstrate this, the plaintiff typically engages a medical professional with similar credentials to those possessed by the defendant to serve as an expert witness -- or “expert” for short -- to testify about the accepted standard of care. In fact, it’s usually necessary to work with multiple experts from several different specialties, depending on the details of the particular case. These experts would discuss what a competent medical professional in the same specialty would have done for a patient in a similar situation.

In addition, a plaintiff must establish that the health care professional’s negligence was the direct cause of his or her injury. Again, this usually requires the testimony of an expert. In some situations, it may be necessary to distinguish the harm caused by the malpractice from an ongoing condition that began prior to the injury inflicted at the hands of the provider.

Finally, a plaintiff must be able to demonstrate the types of harm, injury, or damages that he or she suffered as a result of the healthcare provider’s medical negligence or malpractice.

According to the law, these damages must be reasonably quantifiable. Examples of harm include anoxic brain injury, amputation, and paralysis. There are many ways in which a medical professional’s negligence can cause injury to you or a loved one, all of which can be life-altering and even fatal.