Personal Injury Law

Can you sue for what might have happened?

By Ben Glass

Sometimes potential clients call us and complained that "if they had taken the medication that the pharmacist incorrectly gave them they would have become very sick." Since they did not take the medication because they noticed that it was the wrong pill, they did not get sick. They want to sue the pharmacist for what "might have happened." Is this a case?

The law demands compensation for careless acts that lead to real injury. A jury is not allowed to consider what "might have happened" but can only consider in their verdict damages that they believe actually flowed from the alleged negligence and damages that expert testimony establishes will probably happen in the future. It simply does not matter what "might have happened" had you not been smart enough to figure out that the pharmacist had filled the wrong medication.

Full post as published by Northern Virginia Personal Injury Lawyer on August 22, 2008 (boomark / email).