Understanding Your Rights to Medical Malpractice Compensation in New York

Medical malpractice can result in many losses, such as medical expenses that are costly, lost wages and non-economic losses like suffering and pain. A New York attorney who is experienced can help you understand your rights to compensation that you have.

The first step is to determine if you have suffered injuries as a result of a medical error. You can then bring a malpractice lawsuit.

Medical expenses

The most obvious cost in the context of malpractice is that of medical treatment needed to treat the injuries that result. It is important to know that this type of damage is capped by state law at a specific amount set in the liability policy of a healthcare provider's insurance policy. Some states have also set up injured patient compensation funds to help offset the costs of litigation and help providers lower their liability insurance premiums.

Victims are entitled to compensation in addition to medical costs when negligence is found to be a contributing factor. These are referred to as special or economic damages. They include the costs of any medical procedures (past and future) that are required to treat the injuries resulting from the negligence, as well as any lost income caused by being unable to work because of the injury.

Damages for suffering and pain are typical in medical malpractice cases. The amount of damages for pain and suffering is subjective and could vary significantly between different claimants. It includes any physical or emotional pain as well as other physical effects associated with the negligence. For instance the plaintiff could be compensated for a mistake made by a doctor that caused her to miss a crucial cancer screening appointment.

Finally, punitive damages are also possible in certain instances. They are intended to penalize doctors for particularly indecent behavior, like leaving a dirty sponge inside the patient's body following surgery.

Pain and suffering

Pain and suffering is a type of non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases. The damages are for mental and physical trauma the victim endured as a result the negligence of a doctor. The symptoms can be minor such as discomfort or anxiety or they can be severe, like loss of enjoyment in life, depression, embarrassment and fear.

As it's hard to put a value on the amount of suffering and pain, the jury instructions usually leave it to the jurors. They can rely on their own judgement, background and experience to determine what they consider fair and reasonable. Therefore, the amounts paid in malpractice cases vary significantly.

A medical malpractice lawyer can help you demonstrate the extent of your suffering through evidence that is tangible. Images and Xrays, as well as home movies, models and diagrams can help a juror understand the severity of your injuries.

If a doctor's negligence caused the death of a victim, the family members can seek damages through the wrongful death suit or statutes. Laws governing wrongful deaths typically allow the spouse and children to receive the same amount of compensation they would have received if the patient had survived. The amount that a victim is entitled to is usually limited by the state's caps on suffering and pain. It's important to find a skilled medical malpractice lawyer on your side in order to get the compensation you deserve.

Lost wages

You can recover your lost wages if you are unable to work due to medical malpractice. This includes your base pay as well as commissions, bonuses and benefits from employment, pay raises, and retirement fund contributions. Your attorney will review your pay stubs for the previous year to calculate your earnings per hour prior to your injury, and then subtract out your missing work to determine your total lost wages. Your attorney can help determine the loss you will incur in the future income by using a present value calculation. This is a complex financial analysis that analyzes the impact of your injuries on your ability to work in the future, and it is usually performed by a specialist hired by your attorney.

You can also seek non-economic damages, like the pain and suffering resulted from the malpractice. The jury will decide on the appropriate compensation amount for these damages, and it could vary from case to case. Certain states, however, have limits on the amount of damages they can claim, and they've been struck down as unconstitutional in a number of cases.

Settlements of seven figures are usually caused by serious permanent injuries or death caused by extreme medical neglect. High-value settlements may be awarded for among other things, surgical mistakes which cause amputations, or brain damage to infants or mothers and mothers, as well as anesthesia mistakes that cause comas. Punitive damages, intended to punish bad behavior can also be awarded in certain situations.

Damages to future medical treatment

In a medical malpractice lawsuit, there are two types of damages a plaintiff could pursue: non-economic and economic damages. The first is based on measurable losses such as the past or malpractice lawsuit future medical costs. The latter are more difficult to quantify and encompass the suffering and pain as well as loss of enjoyment of life. In a lawsuit involving medical malpractice, the jury will need to hear expert testimony to evaluate these types of losses.

Past medical expenses are easy to prove by providing actual bills from the person who was injured's health care providers. For future expenses, the lawyer for the plaintiff will present medical evidence to show the type of treatment that is likely to be required in the future and how much those treatments cost today. The amount of future medical treatment required may be dependent on the age of the victim at the time of the malpractice.

In order to establish damages for future loss of wages is feasible by proving how the injury affected the patient's future earning capacity and ability to work. This can be proved by expert witness testimony or by examining similar cases from the past.

Pain and suffering is a broader type of damage that covers the physical and emotional discomfort and stress that a patient suffers due to medical negligence. This kind of claim is typically based on testimony from the victim and malpractice lawsuit other witnesses and other evidence like videos, photographs and written reports.