Personal Injury Law

Determining if You Have a Virginia Medical Malpractice Claim

By Ben Glass

When you are hurt by medical negligence, you are facing an uphill battle. Virginia medical malpractice cases are not easy to win. In fact, studies have found that patients will win in only 23 to 39 percent of cases that go to a jury trial.

Not every injury or death that occurs while under the care of a physician is grounds for a medical malpractice lawsuit. People get sick and some die, which has nothing to do with medical negligence.

To determine if you have a case against your doctor or other medical provider, your attorney will need to gather all of the pertinent medical records regarding your care. You will also need to provide as many honest facts about your case as you can. It is important that you don't hide anything from your Virginia medical malpractice attorney.

After your attorney has received and looked over all of your medical records and has interviewed you, he or she will be able to tell you whether or not it looks like you have a provable case of medical malpractice.

To have a successful medical malpractice claim, it needs to be confirmed by expert testimony. An expert would be a doctor in the same field of medicine as the negligent doctor. This medical professional would have to be willing to say that the other doctor's conduct was below accepted standards. It needs to be shown that there was a major medical error, not just a simple mistake or bad test results.

Full post as published by Northern Virginia Personal Injury Lawyer on February 26, 2010 (boomark / email).