Trust is a difficult thing to give to another person in the best of times. Trusting another person with your health and life, therefore, is a matter to be taken extremely seriously.
So you can imagine, then, how bad it feels to have that trust broken. But that is exactly what happens in a medical malpractice case.
Medical malpractice is extremely taxing on victims. There is the injury itself that the patient experiences, the financial burden of correcting it, and the physical exhaustion of repeated visits to a healthcare facility.
Consider as well the irony that victims will also have to pursue additional medical treatment in order to correct whatever damage they suffered. Imagine the fear one might experience from having to see a doctor again for the actions caused by a doctor in the first place.
And yet, medical malpractice is more widespread than most people would expect. According to the National Practitioner Data Bank, in the year 2022, Georgia submitted 928 Adverse Action Reports and 288 Medical Malpractice Payment Reports to the organization.
This suggests that, in a single year, the Georgia Composite Medical Board took action against 928 cases of malpractice, and payments were made to 288 patients to settle damages.
So, while the threat of injury due to medical malpractice is low, given the nearly 17,000 practitioners in the state, the threat is still there. And you might need legal assistance to get through it if it happens to you.
Why Work With a Fulton County Medical Malpractice Attorney
Medical practitioners make a lot of money. That means they can hire legal help of their own to protect them in the event they make a mistake.
Having a medical malpractice attorney on your side when you make a claim or file a lawsuit helps to even the playing field. After all, you’ve already been wronged, so why let the at-fault party have any hold over you whatsoever?
A medical malpractice lawyer is a personal injury lawyer with a reputation – or at least a history – of getting positive outcomes in medical malpractice cases for their clients. They take other personal injury cases as well, of course, but malpractice is one specialty.
Medical malpractice attorneys are well-versed in personal injury law, medical law, insurance law, and tort claims in general. They put these skills together to try and get as much out of a claim or a lawsuit as possible for malpractice victims.
How much they can impact a claim varies on a case-to-case basis, but working with a lawyer can multiply the value a claimant can get by up to four times as compared to working alone. And that is after deducting the lawyer’s fees from the total.
For the context of how much money is at play, federal court cases from 2002 to 2022 reveal that out of 661 cases of medical malpractice, the median settlement was around $250,000, while the median award in damages was $500,000.
What Is Medical Malpractice?
Put in as straightforward a manner as possible, medical malpractice is negligence on the part of a professed medical practitioner, specifically when they were caring for or expected to care for a patient. In order to determine medical malpractice in Georgia, three conditions have to be met.
First, the injured party has to be owed a standard of care by the defendant. That means one should be able to expect a certain degree of care from the at-fault party comparable to what other competent healthcare practitioners in the same context would provide.
Second, the professional must have failed to meet that standard of care. This can take any form, such as, but not limited to, a surgeon leaving a tool inside a patient by accident or failing to call additional medical aid when necessary.
Finally, the injured party’s injuries must be the result of the defendant’s failure to meet the standard of care. Going back to one of our previous examples, let’s say that an instrument left inside the patient’s body during surgery led to sepsis.
It serves to point out that medical practice lawsuits do not require the defendant to actually be a medical practitioner. Instead, Georgia allows the pursuit of medical malpractice lawsuits against anyone who so much as claims to provide a healthcare service (even pseudoscientific ones!).
An Exemption to Medical Malpractice Lawsuits: The Good Samaritan Law
One issue the state acknowledges regarding medical malpractice claims is that they can discourage medical professionals from helping in the event of an emergency due to the possibility of being held liable for injury or death.
In order to address this, the Good Samaritan Law dictates that anyone providing emergency care for no charge to a person in need of it cannot be held liable for civil damages. This applies to medical practitioners and non-medical practitioners alike.
The Good Samaritan Law means that if someone acted out of good faith to provide emergency treatment, they cannot be sued even if they make a mistake attempting to help.
I Am a Victim of Medical Malpractice. What Are My Options?
Because medical malpractice cases are personal injury cases, your options for recompense are largely the same. You may pursue an insurance claim with the liable party’s insurance provider, or you may opt to pursue a lawsuit against the health professional instead.
Most of the time, you can only choose one of the two. However, there are certain instances when, after getting a payout from the insurance company, you may still be able to pursue a lawsuit.
For example, if the amount you got from the insurance claim fails to cover all your economic damages or if it fails to account for non-economic damages, you can file a lawsuit in hopes of covering the difference.
This scenario is especially common among claimants who do not work with lawyers. People who file a claim pro se often fail to account for things such as projected future expenses related to the injury, potential loss of income, or pain and suffering.
Working with a lawyer can smoothen the process by keeping you informed of the true value of your claim and building a case to support that value contrary to what justifications the insurer might have to offer you a lower amount.
Do I Need to Take My Case to Court?
Most of the time, you do not need to take a case to court to get compensation. The threat of a lawsuit is often more than enough to encourage at-fault parties to make a fair offer that covers all of your damages.
This is because lawsuits are extremely expensive in terms of resources. And by resources, we mean time, money, mental and emotional fortitude, and physical health.
Plaintiffs and defendants alike will often opt to settle out of court rather than take it all the way, with an estimated 4% of cases ever making it to trial. Insurance agencies also tend to prefer settlements as a maximum payout can be cheaper than going to court.
That said, there are instances where going to court is warranted. If that is the case, your medical malpractice attorney will work together with you to ensure your case is airtight in order to maximize your chances of winning.
Thankfully, the upside to a court case is that if you win, you stand a chance of claiming a larger amount than a settlement would have netted you. This is especially true because in 2010, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled the state’s former $350,000 cap on medical malpractice claims as unconstitutional.
What Is the Statute of Limitations for Medical Malpractice in Fulton County?
Statutes of limitations are dictated by state law. For medical malpractice in Georgia, the statute of limitations is two years, as is the case for any civil action against bodily injury.
This two-year statute can be tolled – put on hold – if the practitioner attempted to hide their negligence or if the victim was under the age of 18. However, the law states that lawsuits cannot be pursued if more than five years have elapsed since an instance of medical malpractice.
One caveat: going back once more to the example of a surgical instrument left inside the patient’s body, the law further states that plaintiffs may take legal action within one year of discovery. This “discovery rule” is an exemption from the five-year “statute of repose.”
Pursuing Justice With a Fulton County Medical Malpractice Law Firm
The CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm is Fulton County’s partner in settling medical malpractice claims and pursuing medical malpractice lawsuits. Under the leadership of
Attorney Ali Awad, our firm has successfully recovered millions in damages for our clients.
It all comes down to community presence and expertise. Over seven years and counting, we have worked together with the community to the best of our ability and have been rewarded with the fact we are among the fastest-growing law firms in the country today.
The CEO Lawyer serves clients in both English and Spanish. You can find us in the courtroom, at the negotiating table, and online, where Attorney Awad uses his platform to share useful legal advice.
If you need help with your medical malpractice case or with any personal injury case, reach out to the CEO Lawyer today by calling (470) 323-8779. We will give a free evaluation of your case, and we do not request payment until after we have won your case or settled your claim.
