Medical Malpractice Attorney New York - New Jersey
If you are injured or ill and you must go to the hospital, you would hope that you are being treated by the most competent and well trained medical staff. The reality is however that, believe it or not doctors, nurses, physician assistants, etc. are doctors too. Medical malpractice in New York and New Jersey occurs when a medical professional fails to treat you properly or were treats you in a way that is negligent meaning it failed to use a standard of care which has been established by the profession.Negligence by a doctor or medical professional, can come in many shapes and forms. For example, the doctor fails to diagnose a condition which later causes the condition to become worse or even fatal, the failure of the doctor to treat properly the illness or injury, once it is diagnosed, or the failure to manage the illness treatment, for example failure to prescribe the proper medication or failure to schedule follow-up x-rays or other diagnostic tests.
Lawsuits in NY and NJ based on medical malpractice can be brought against the doctor, if as we said above here she fails to use proper care within the accepted standards of medical practice in the United States; or the case could be brought against the hospital if it's staff treats you improperly as a result of negligence or poor training on their part, or if the hospital itself has poor sanitation which causes infection for example.
In recent years, doctors hospitals and medical professionals have succeeded in getting passed legislation in almost all jurisdictions making it more and more difficult to prevail against them in medical malpractice lawsuits. For example many jurisdictions have time limits on bringing malpractice actions, unless there are extraordinary circumstances which affect the delay in bringing the suit. In other words time is of the essence, and any lawsuits founded on medical malpractice must be aggressively and quickly initiated to preserve the injured party's rights.
Oftentimes, medical malpractice cases in New York City, New York State and New Jersey and Long Island require the opinions of experts, which most usually involves doctors. Expert doctors must review the files of this injured patient to determine whether the injured party did not receive care which falls under the rubric of the accepted medical practices, and that the medical professionals involved, actions or miss-actions, caused the injury.
The concept of "Respondeat Superior" and Independent medical Contractors, in medical malpractice suits.
A super medical malpractice can be brought against the hospital where the doctor works. This is based on the legal concept of "Respondeat Superior,” a legal theory under which an employer may be held liable for the negligence of its employee, as long as the employee was acting within the scope of their employment when the negligent act occurred. This theory is extremely helpful to lawyers pursuing medical malpractice cases, because usually the hospitals have more resources to pay damages to injured parties that the doctors themselves. As long as the doctors were acting within the scope of their home in the hospital than the hospital, would be liable to pay for the damages of the injured party.
Very often, hospitals will employ visiting physicians. These visiting physicians are considered very often to be contractors are not employees of the hospital. In such a case wherein the negligence was committed by a visiting position, usually the theory of quote “respondeat superior,” would not apply. However if the hospital were negligent in employing an improperly trained medical professional, then hospital still could be sued in such a case.
It is important to remember that there are no guarantees that a doctor can heal or treat the patient. When somebody experiences an unanticipated or unsuccessful medical treatment at the hands of medical professional, that does not automatically mean that the doctor medical professional acted in the negligent way, and that the injured party can pursue a medical malpractice case. Furthermore it may not be possible to recover damages from all injuries caused by the negligence of a doctor. Sometimes minor injuries are practically speaking very difficult to recover on. The bottom line is a competent legal authority should be consulted immediately to ensure the proper handling of the case.