Medical Malpractice Attorney

Queens Lawyer Assisting Injured Patients

When you go to see a doctor and their medical team, you trust that you will be diagnosed and treated competently. Unfortunately, health care providers can make errors, and the consequences of these errors can be costly and life-changing. If you suspect that you were injured as a result of medical malpractice, you should consult Queens medical malpractice lawyer Shane D. Scott. He may be able to represent you in a lawsuit for damages.

Medical Malpractice

In New York, a medical malpractice case may be commenced against any type of licensed health care provider. Providers who may be held accountable for their malpractice include doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, and physical therapists. To establish your entitlement to damages, you will need to prove that it is more likely than not that you were owed a professional duty of care by your medical provider, your medical provider did not meet the professional standard, and your medical provider’s failure to meet the professional standard caused your injuries. As a plaintiff, you have the burden of proof. You will need to show that your health care provider did not use the degree of learning, skill, and care expected from a reasonably prudent health care provider in the same specialty and geographic region. For example, if your oncologist fails to provide an appropriate treatment for your cancer, a medical malpractice attorney in Queens could help you try to show that reasonably prudent oncologists in New York City would have provided a different treatment.

Health care providers can fail to meet the professional standard of care in many ways. Medical malpractice litigation can arise out of issues such as failing to diagnose or misdiagnosing a patient, misreading lab results, failing to take a proper patient history, failing to order tests, failing to provide follow-up care, surgical errors, or medication or dosage errors. For example, it would be medical malpractice if your surgeon was supposed to perform a spine surgery but operated on the wrong disc of your spine.

Your provider’s failure to meet the professional standard of care must be a proximate or legal cause of your injuries for you to recover damages; you will not be able to recover damages if you would have suffered the same injury even if you had received the care that a reasonably prudent professional would have provided. Your Queens medical malpractice attorney will need to retain an expert to offer an opinion that your provider failed to meet the standard of care and that this failure, rather than your underlying medical condition, caused your injuries.

Certificate of Merit

Certain procedural requirements apply to medical malpractice cases that do not apply to ordinary personal injury claims. Under New York Civil Practice Law and Rules section 3012-a, we will need to file a certificate of merit with the complaint. In the certificate of merit, we will need to certify that we consulted with a medical expert who concluded that your case has merit. The medical expert needs to be a licensed doctor who is familiar with the relevant facts of your situation.

Compensatory Damages

If we can establish your provider’s liability, it may be possible to recover compensatory damages. These are damages that address both your economic and non-economic losses, including pain and suffering, medical bills, lost wages, loss of enjoyment of life, and replacement services. Experts again may play a key role in describing the harm that you suffered and the harm that you are likely to suffer in the future because of the malpractice.

Consult a Medical Malpractice Lawyer in Queens

Most people trust their doctors and nurses to provide the proper diagnosis and care for their symptoms. When proper professional standards are not met, devastating consequences can occur. If you need to recover damages in a medical malpractice lawsuit in the New York City area, you should consult Shane D. Scott. Call us at (800) 230-0744 or complete our online form.