If you or a loved one has suffered an injury due to the inadequate approach of medical professionals, you may be looking to claim compensation. You may have had to spend heavily on treatment due to what happened, and it may also have affected the ability to earn, so exercising your rights in this way may make perfect sense.
A successful medical malpractice claim could help you get the compensation you need. However, you can only bring them in very specific circumstances. This is because lawmakers recognize that the human body is not 100 percent predictable. It does not always react to treatment as one might hope, and one person may react entirely differently to another.
To succeed in a claim, you will need to prove the following elements with sufficient evidence.
Duty of care
You can only file against someone who had a duty of care toward you. A doctor that treated you or a hospital in whose care you were at the time would usually automatically meet this requirement.
Deviation
You need to show the party you intend to sue deviated from what their profession expects of someone with similar experience in the same situation. Did they ignore standard procedures or try something on you that their colleagues might frown upon?
Damages
You must show how the party’s actions have injured you. Only a substantial injury, rather than a minor inconvenience, warrants taking legal action.
Direct link
You must prove your injuries are a direct consequence of what the party you intend to sue did or did not do. You need to show that your harm is not just a coincidence.
Learning more about what a medical malpractice claim requires can help you determine if you have grounds to proceed. Seeking legal guidance is a good way to get started.
