Understanding Your Rights to Medical Malpractice Compensation in New York

Medical malpractice can cause many losses, such as expensive medical expenses, loss of income and non-economic damages like suffering and pain. A reputable New York attorney can help you learn about your rights to compensation.

The first step is to determine whether you suffered injuries because of a medical mistake. The next step is to bring a malpractice lawsuit.

Medical expenses

The expense of medical treatment to treat injuries is the most obvious. It's important to recognize that this category of damages is restricted by state law to a certain amount as stipulated in the liability policy of a healthcare provider's insurance policy. Some states also set up injured patient compensation funds to help offset the perceived costs of litigation and to help lower the liability costs for providers.

Victims can claim compensation in addition to medical expenses when negligence is found to be a contributing factor. These are known as economic or special damages. They include the cost of medical care (past or in the future) required to treat the injury caused by the malpractice and also any income lost due to being not able to work.

In medical malpractice cases, pain and suffering damages are also common. The amount of damages for pain and suffering is subjective and may differ greatly between different plaintiffs. This includes physical pain, emotional distress and other non-physical consequences of the mistake. For instance the plaintiff may be compensated for the error of a doctor that caused her to miss a crucial cancer screening appointment.

In some cases punitive damages can be awarded. These are designed to punish the doctor for egregious behavior, like leaving a dirty sponge in the patient's body following surgery.

Suffering and pain

In medical malpractice cases, pain and suffering is one of the types of non-economic damages. The damages are for physical and mental trauma that a victim suffered because of the negligence of a doctor. The symptoms can be mild, like discomfort or anxiety, or major issues, like loss of enjoyment in life, depression, embarrassment, insomnia, and fear.

Since it's difficult to put an amount on suffering and suffering, the jury instructions usually leave it to jurors. They can rely on their judgment, background and experience to decide what they believe is fair and reasonable. The amounts awarded in malpractice cases vary widely.

A medical malpractice lawyer can assist you in proving your suffering with tangible evidence. Photos and X-rays, as well as home models, videos and diagrams will help jurors understand the extent of your injuries.

If a physician's mistake resulted in the death of a patient, heirs may be able to claim damages under survival statutes or lawsuits. Wrongful death law allows the spouse and children of the deceased victim to receive the same amount of money they would have received had the patient survived. The total amount of damages the victim can collect is usually restricted by the state's caps on suffering and pain. It's important to find a skilled medical malpractice lawyer by your side to pursue the compensation you deserve.

Loss of wages

You can get back your lost wages if your absence from work due to medical negligence. This includes your base pay commissions, bonuses, employment benefits, pay increases, and retirement fund contributions. Your attorney will look over your past pay stubs to calculate your average earnings prior the accident. Then, subtract your absence from that number to calculate your total lost earnings. Your lawyer can also assist you in determining the future loss of earnings by using a present value calculation. This is an analysis of financials that analyzes the effects of your injuries in the future on your ability to earn a living. It is usually done by a professional hired by your attorney.

You can also seek non-economic damages like suffering and pain caused by the error. The jury will decide the appropriate amount of compensation which may differ from case to case. However, some states have a limit on these damages, and they've been declared unconstitutional in many cases.

Seven-figure settlements usually involve serious permanent injuries or deaths that result from extreme medical negligence. Settlements with high values can be granted for, among other things, surgical blunders that cause amputations and brain injury to infants and mothers and mothers, as well as anesthesia errors that can cause comas. In certain circumstances, punitive damages may be available to punish the bad behavior.

Damages that could be incurred for future medical care

In a medical negligence case the plaintiff may pursue economic or non-economic damages. The former are based upon calculable financial losses such as past and future medical expenses. The latter are more difficult to quantify, and includes the suffering and pain as well as loss of enjoyment of life. In a medical malpractice lawsuit, the jury will need to hear expert testimony to determine the kind of losses.

Past medical expenses are easy to prove by providing actual bills from the injured person's health healthcare providers. The attorney for the plaintiff will submit medical evidence to prove what procedures are likely be needed in the future, and how much they cost now. The amount of future medical treatment required can also be affected by the age of the victim at the time of the incident.

In order to establish damages for future loss of earnings is possible if you can show how the injury affected the patient's future earnings capacity and ability to work. This can be proved by expert witness testimony or by examining similar cases in the previous.

Pain and suffering is a larger category of damages that encompasses the physical and psychological discomfort and suffering suffers a patient due to medical negligence. This kind of injury is usually based on the statements of witnesses and the victim as well as evidence such as photographs videos, audiotapes, and written reports.