Medical malpractice results from all different types of causes. Amongst these are poor or inadequate training; long work hours and overworked doctors; alcohol, drug, and substance abuse.

In order to prove a medical malpractice case, you will need to show that the doctor that caused you harm did not render treatment up to the standard of care of his or her profession. That is, if an average, prudent doctor in similar circumstances would not have acted in the same as the doctor that caused your injuries, you may have a medical malpractice case.

Medical malpractice is an extremely complex area of the law. As such, there are all sorts of restrictions and time limitations on how and when a medical malpractice case can be brought. For example, before a lawsuit is filed in a medical malpractice case, the claim must go through a stage called “pre-suit.”

Additionally, the standard statute of limitations in a medical malpractice case in Florida is two-years. This means that you must bring your case within two-years of when you knew, or should have known, that malpractice was committed. In other words, oftentimes medical malpractice is committed by a doctor or hospital and the victim isn’t immediately aware of the malpractice (for example, in the case of misdiagnosis). In that case, the statute of limitations would be two years from the date the victim should have known of the malpractice (which would be determined by a Judge based on all of the circumstances of the case).

There is also a four-year statute of repose in Florida for a medical malpractice case. This means that, regardless of when you should have known that medical malpractice was committed, you cannot bring a case after four years from the date the malpractice was committed.

Finally, for cases involving fraud, concealment, or intentional misrepresentation, there is a seven-year cap. That means that, if a medical provider attempts to hide the fact that malpractice was committed, there will be a seven-year cap on when you can bring a medical malpractice case. It is therefore extremely important that you contact this South Florida Medical Malpractice Lawyer as soon as possible to make sure these deadlines are met.

Unfortunately, sometimes people pass away as a result of medical malpractice. In that case, it is those left behind that may be compensated for their loss. However, the law in Florida only allows certain categories of family members to be compensated for their loss. These include: a spouse, children under twenty-five-years-old, adult children financially dependent on the decedent (person who passed away), and a parent of a child under the age of 25. If a person dies and doesn’t leave behind any family members in any of these categories, there can be no medical malpractice-wrongful death case.

Further, one other consideration in a medical malpractice case is that not all medical providers carry malpractice insurance. It will be important to figure out if the doctor or hospital that caused you harm carried malpractice insurance, so this is another important reason to contact Stephen Morse.

This Fort Lauderdale Medical Negligence Attorney handles medical malpractice cases involving all types of injuries. These include catastrophic injuries, spinal cord injuries, broken bones and fractures, traumatic brain injuries (TBI’s), paralysis, paraplegia and quadriplegia, eye injuries, vision loss, hearing loss, comas, amputations, birth injuries and death (i.e., wrongful death).