Medical Malpractice Law

In South Carolina any health care provider can be held liable for medical malpractice. A health care provider can also include entities such as hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and pharmacies (Advice). If a patient believes they have been

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Medical malpractice lawsuits are an extremely serious topic and have affected numerous patients, doctors, and hospitals across the country. Medical malpractice is defined as “improper, unskilled or negligent treatment of a patient by a physician, dentist, nurse, pharmacist, or other health care professional” (Medical malpractice, n.d.). If a doctor acts negligent and causes harm to a patient, malpractice lawsuits arise. Negligence is the concept of the liability concerning claims of medical malpractice, making this type of litigation part of tort law. Tort law provides that one person may litigate negligence to recover damages for personal injury. Negligence laws are designed to deter careless behavior and also to

Tort reform is the attempt to improve the tort law, which is a civil wrong that unreasonably causes another individual to suffer harm or loss resulting in legal liability for the individual who commits the unjust act. It has been occurring since the 1900s, where certain people, such as wealthy defendants and insurance companies, disliked the idea that people were receiving a limitless amount of money using the tort law. So, many interest groups, lobbyist groups, and PACs (political action committees) took control over reforming the tort law in attempt to achieve the goal of reducing the amount of money defendants would have to pay by putting caps on damages. In this way, large insurance companies and other corporations and groups have

Medical Malpractice consists of negligence committed by a medical professional. There are many possible events that can occur in the practice of medicine. When physician make a medical error it could possible result in an injury. We often put our faith in doctor to make the right medical decision for us. However, medical malpractice does not always hold up since some patient can take advance of the system. There are some defenses that exist when talking about the medical malpractice.

The consequences of medical malpractice can be devastating: paralysis, brain damage, cognitive deficits, loss of limbs, organ failure, permanent disabilities, and death are some of the outcomes.

One approach to minimize large amounts of tort claims for medical malpractice is to put a cap on non-economical awards. Tort reform is the response; a tort is a civil lawsuit for damages over private wrongs other than breach of contract. According to Lau and Johnson (2014), a tort can be categorized into three categories: intentional tort, when tortfeasor acted with intent, negligence, if the tortfeasor did not act intentionally, but failed to act as a reasonable person, and lastly, strict liability, if the tortfeasor is engaged in certain activities, which caused injury or death due to it. The massive medical malpractice cases across the nation have made defending frivolous lawsuits is a national problem; ultimately, the general public

Medical malpractice claims have risen dramatically over the past 40 years alongside the financial claim awards (Kessler, 2011). Currently, America’s medical tort system is regulated and enforced primarily by the states (“Medical Tort System,” 2016). The main focus of tort law is to preserve the peace between two parties, to determine fault and discourage wrong doing (Pozgar, 2016). Most physicians today carry medical malpractice insurance to protect themselves from the high defense costs of claims and potential financial awards (Kessler, 2011). As the number of medical claims increase and jury awarded punitive damage skyrocket, medical malpractice insurance premiums have also risen dramatically (Kessler, 2011). Malpractice insurance

Across the country, there are calls for medical malpractice tort reform based on the perception of frivolous lawsuits by patients with patients without valid claims and less-than-scrupulous lawyers are willing to prosecute them. On the one hand, the fact that some plaintiffs have received enormous settlements as a result of their medical malpractice lawsuits further fuels the debate that tort reform is needed to avoid these types of settlements that are incongruent with the facts. On the other hand, though, few observers would likely argue that some type of medical malpractice protections are required in order to protect patients from truly substandard and dangerous medical care practices and to compensate them for their injuries when these eventualities occur. One state that has implemented reasonable malpractice statutes and procedures that avoid these two extremes is Ohio where legislators passed tort reform laws in 2002. By contrast, many of the State of Michigan's laws on medical malpractice date back 40 years. This paper provides a description of the provisions of the medical malpractice statutes and procedures from these two states, followed by a summary of the research and important findings in the conclusion.

Malpractice is the failure to provide professional services with the skill usually exhibited by responsible and careful members of the profession, resulting in injury, loss, or damage to the party contracting those services. Though accountants, lawyers, and other professionals can be charged with malpractice, the term is most commonly associated with medical professionals (e.g., doctors, nurses, hospital technicians.) Liability in malpractice depends on whether "a physician meets a legally required standard of care" (Greenberg 2011). Most medical malpractice suits are for negligence on the part of medical professionals in providing this expected level of care. In recent decades, partially as a consequence of medical costs, there has been a considerable expansion of medical malpractice suits, though the number of malpractice claims represents only a small percentage (about 3%) of all cases of actual negligence. State tort provisions do "influence litigation risk and malpractice insurance is used to mitigate this risk" (Linville 2011).

There is a line however that can be crossed when negligence then becomes a criminal conduct. To cross the line from civil to criminal negligence there has to be a gross deviation from the standard of care. This is where the importance of the standard of care comes into play, this is where the jury finds that the physician could be held under negligence. The American Medical Association has a strong values against negligence, although they are opposed to the prosecution of that negligence, the AMA however concedes that the recklessness in conduct should be criminally culpable. When it comes to criminal negligence, civil liability is met, in this case the claim allows the patient to receive compensation for their injuries and it also gives the physician the chance to remodel their standards of care without having to face the penalties of a prison term (London Amburn Attorneys at Law,

It is not guaranteed that your physician or any other health professional will provide you with the valued care at all times even if they truly attempted to. In this situation, which could be detrimental to a person's health and life brings up the ongoing trend of medical malpractice suits. Medical malpractice can occur on different occasions. The various types of medical malpractice include: plastic and cosmetic surgery, prescription drug error, birth injuries, obstetric malpractice, and surgical as well as diagnosis errors. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, Americans file more than 17,000 medical malpractice lawsuits a year. If those lawsuits are won in favor of the patient, it can result in extreme out of pocket costs for the hospital that the health provider is associated with. In a 2005 medical malpractice case, the jury awarded 4.5 million to a family of a boy born with severe brain damage after a traumatic delivery in 1996. Due to the poor delivery, the boy now suffers from cerebral palsy and functions at the level of a

Begin your search for an attorney you can trust. Limit your search for attorneys that specializes in medical malpractice for optimal assistance. One method you can use to find medical malpractice attorneys is to find attorneys you trust and ask for referrals. Medical malpractice attorneys are able to tell you if you have a case and whether or not your case is worth bringing before a judge. Medical malpractice is a highly specialized area of law. In each state lies different sets of medical malpractice laws that might affect your chances of getting success in a court room. Some states may contain laws that outline a clear pathway into the courtroom, and in others, you may have to deal with more complicated laws. Find an attorney that will give

Malpractice actions are different from state to state, but I don’t think it’s consistent with the public’s generally held beliefs about malpractice because people want physicians to be liable for damages and

It is human nature to make mistakes; however, mistakes that cause harm to someone else could be considered negligence. In the case with Mr. Benson in the Neighborhood Newspaper article, a mistake was made that was irreversible. He went into the hospital to have his leg amputated, and the doctor amputated the wrong leg. The question is was the doctor negligent in his practice? Is the amputation of the wrong leg considered to be malpractice on the doctor’s part? This paper will differentiate between negligence, gross negligence, and malpractice. After differentiating between these terms, it will be determined if the doctor operating on Mr. Benson was considered to be negligent, gross negligent or was this mistake malpractice.