Medical Malpractice Law

Welcome to our California medical malpractice law and medical malpractice information page. Our California medical malpractice attorneys stand ready to assist you through the complex maze of legal issues that arise in medical malpractice lawsuits & litigation. A medical malpractice lawyer from our law firm is on call 24/7 to help you if you have been a victim of any medical malpractice & negligence in California. Click here to contact medical malpractice lawyer in California.

California Medical Malpractice & Negligence

There are 4 important questions about your medical negligence claim which must be answered affirmatively.

• Did the Defendant health care provider (Doctor, Hospital, Nurse, etc.) owe a duty of care to the Plaintiff (injured, harmed patient)?
• Did the Defendant health care provider breach the duty owed to the Plaintiff patient by rendering care that was below the acceptable standard of care in the community?
• Did the sub-standard care rendered by the health care provider actually cause the damages allegedly suffered by the Plaintiff?
• Did the Plaintiff suffer direct damages as a result of some malfeasance on the part of the Defendant?

The first question is usually answered easily. Did the Defendant agree to render care to the patient? If so, then the Defendant assumed a duty to treat the patient with skill, and diligence, and care as excercised by competent and careful health providers.

Secondly, medical malpractice occurs when a health care provider fails to provide services that would be reasonably expected to be provided by other skilled and competent providers in the community under the same circumstances.

Thirdly, the action or failure to act on the part of the health care provider must have actually caused the injury of which the Plaintiff is complaining. In other words, but for the Defendants action or failure to act, the Plaintiff would not have been injured.

Lastly, the Plaintiff must have suffered direct consequences from the Defendants conduct. Such direct consequences may include lost wages, medical expenses, other economic damages, as well as mental or physical pain.

The economic damages which may be recovered in a Medical Negligence lawsuit include the cost of medical care, prescriptions and devices, as well as lost wages, lost future earnings and any other out of pocket expenses. As an example, a plaintiff in a California medical malpractice case may also recover general or non-economic damages which include pain and suffering. In California, by statute, recovery of non-economic damages is limited to $250,000.00.

Who Can be Named in a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit?

Medical malpractice cases are not limited to physicians and surgeons. Medical negligence may be imputed to any doctor, physician, surgeon, MD, DO, chiropractor, physical therapist, nurse, nursing assistant, pharmacist, inhalation therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist, dentist, dental assistant, etc.

In short, California medical negligence laws may apply to anyone or any facility in the business of providing health care. Hospitals, clinics, laboratories and lab technicians, pharmacies and pharmacy technicians, medical equipment providers and pharmaceutical companies, also may be included in a medical malpractice lawsuit.

What is Medical Negligence?

The following is a partial list, by no means complete, of the kinds of things that may be considered medically negligent. Failure to diagnose, delayed diagnosis, misdiagnosis, failure to treat, delayed treatment, incompetent treatment, unauthorized treatment, lack of consent to treat, lack of informed consent, birth trauma, birth injury, cerebral palsy, Erb's palsy, birth injuries, hospital negligence, nursing negligence, pharmaceutical error, defective medicine, side effects, failure to disclose or warn of possible side effects, medical error, surgical error, medical mistakes, surgical mistakes, chiropractor error, chiropractic mistake, anesthesia error, prescription error, medication mistake, wrong medication prescribed, wrong prescription dosage, overdose of medication, reaction to medication, failure to perform appropriate testing, misinterpretation of lab results, failure to review lab results, failure to take preventative measures for heart attack or stoke, unethical treatment, abusive treatment, and patient abuse. There are many, many more possibilities for medical injury, medical negligence and medical malpractice.

Medical Malpractice Law Resources

Medical Malpractice Law - An Overview

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