One of the most difficult types of lawsuits to litigate, an Ottawa medical malpractice case requires the talent of an experienced lawyer who has a successful track record of positive outcomes for clients. The actual filing of the lawsuit isn’t what makes a medical malpractice case difficult. The challenge of a medical malpractice claim is the development of a factual basis for the claim as well as the subject matter of the case.
Establishment of Your Medical Malpractice Claim
To establish a medical malpractice claim, your lawyer must uncover evidence that demonstrates that in your particular case, your doctor not only breached the standard of care in your treatment or diagnosis, but except for the breach, you would not have incurred damage. A tall order, proving a breach of standard of care requires that you and your medical malpractice lawyer must establish that the doctor failed to provide you with the proper care that an average doctor with the same licence or qualifications would have provided under similar circumstances. This doesn’t mean that you must show that a less skilled doctor or a more skilled doctor would have met that particular standard, but that no doctor practicing in that particular area would have treated you in the manner that you were treated.
An error in judgment is not enough to establish a breach in standard of care. Doctors are allowed the liberty to use their experienced judgment in determining treatment or diagnosis of patients. Indeed, all medical decisions that doctors make are a judgment call of one kind or another. A breach in the standard of care must reach the level of a standard under which no physician would have done what yours did under the circumstances. For instance, some common breaches of standard of care might include:
- Sub-standard care in diagnosis of a patient’s condition
- Sub-standard surgical skill used in the performance of a surgical procedure
- Sub-standard care in treatment recommendations
- Failure of a doctor to provide adequate potential risk warnings of a surgical procedure or treatment
An Ottawa Medical Malpractice Lawyer Can Advise You of Your Rights If a Doctor Has Caused you Damage
When you visit a doctor, you expect to come away from the experience in better condition than when you arrived. Most of the time that expectation is met. However, occasionally a doctor, and sometimes another type of healthcare provider, makes a mistake or fails to meet the appropriate standard of care, and that breach leads to further injury or damage to a patient. And, while few negative medical outcomes rise to the level of a medical malpractice, if you think that you were injured by the negligence or ineptitude of your doctor, you may be entitled to compensation for your damage.
Contacting an experienced Ottawa lawyer with medical malpractice litigation experience is your best opportunity to determine if you have a medical malpractice case. Schedule a consultation to get an idea of whether or not your medical malpractice claim is a viable one. Patients do have rights. Make sure that yours are safeguarded. If you believe that you have been injured as the result of a doctor’s failure to meet the standard of care in your diagnosis or treatment, consult with an experienced medical malpractice lawyer today.
