If you’ve been injured by a doctor’s mistake, then you’re probably ready to seek accountability and the compensation that you need and deserve. While a medical malpractice lawsuit may get you the results that you want, it’s not as easy as some would lead you to believe. In fact, given the stakes involved in these cases, many medical malpractice claims are hotly contested. That means that you need to be prepared from the get-go to build the persuasive legal claim that you need on your side.
How do you build your medical malpractice case?
There are a lot of moving parts to a medical malpractice case. Overlooking one of them can be devastating to your claim. That’s why as you begin to think about your case, you need to consider doing each of the following to build the foundation for your claim:
- Seek out recommended treatment: First and foremost, you have to take care of yourself. This means securing the treatment that your doctor recommends and that you need to put you on the path to recovery. Also, following your doctor’s recommendation for additional treatment helps you create a paper trail of the harm that has been caused to you, your prognosis, and your need for ongoing medical care. This can speak to both the liability and damages portions of your claim.
- Talk to a medical expert: A lot of the focus in your medical malpractice case is going to be on whether your doctor lived up to the applicable standard of care when you were harmed. That can be a difficult standard to assess, which means that you may need an expert to assess your medical records and speak to whether the doctor’s actions were proper under the circumstances. Be prepared for the defense to have their own expert, too, so that you can properly counter their testimony.
- Depose witnesses: By deposing witnesses, you can learn what information is available to you and where you need to follow up. It also allows you to lock in a witness’s testimony so that you can box them in if they try to change their story at trial. Remember, too, that there are probably other medical professionals who were present when you were subjected to malpractice but who were not responsible for the error. These individuals may be more than willing to give you the information that you need if you ask to depose them.
- Secure your medical records: This sounds like a no-brainer, but you need to make sure that you obtain all of your medical records and carefully scrutinize them to see if there’s any indication of medical malpractice in them. Your medical expert and your attorney can help you scour these records to identify information that is helpful to your claim.
Are you ready to build the aggressively thorough claim that you deserve?
To maximize your chances of success, you need to create an aggressive and persuasive legal strategy. Your case needs to be supported by the evidence and the law, and you need to be able to anticipate defense arguments and craft compelling counterarguments. There’s a lot of work and medical and legal knowledge that needs to go into that.
If the thought of building your case has you feeling on edge, don’t worry. Skilled legal teams like ours are here to help. So, if you’d like to learn more about what you can do to develop your medical malpractice case, then please consider reaching out to a law firm that you trust for more information.
