Medical Malpractice
Individuals Injured by Medical Errors in the Denver Area
Numerous medical mistakes are made annually across the United States, resulting in a staggering amount of unnecessary pain, suffering, and even death affecting patients and their families. Unfortunately, medical malpractice cases can be difficult, expensive, and hard-fought by both the physicians accused of wrongdoing and their insurance companies. If your family has been affected by this type of harm in the Denver-Metro area or the surrounding communities, you should speak to an injury attorney about whether it would be worthwhile to file suit against a doctor, nurse, or hospital. We are here to assist you as you assert your legal right to seek compensation from the medical providers whose actions harmed you.
Asserting Your Rights against a Negligent Health Care Provider:
Medical malpractice lawsuits are a particular subcategory of a larger area of the law known as negligence. All injury lawsuits have the same four elements – duty to act reasonably, failure to act the way a reasonable person should act, causation, and damages. But, for medical malpractice cases there are some special requirements that must be met when filing a lawsuit. Most states, including Colorado, have statutes in place to detail the steps that a claimant must take in order to establish a cause of action against a doctor or other medical worker. One step is that an injured person must consult with a doctor who will certify that the actions of the defendant doctor were below the standard of care that a reasonable doctor would provide. At trial, expert testimony by a doctor or nurse is almost always required in order to establish both the standard of care and any breach of the standard by the defendant.
Sometimes a medical malpractice suit arises because a doctor failed to do something that a reasonable provider would have done under the same or similar circumstances, but other cases can arise because the physician did something that a prudent doctor would not have done. Common allegations include:
The doctor failed to diagnose a disease in a timely fashion;
There was an unreasonable delay between the diagnosis and treatment of a disease or injury;
A mistake occurred during surgery or birth, perhaps due to an error of a nurse anesthetist or anesthesiologist; or
A doctor operated on the wrong body part.
Once a patient has established that his or her medical provider’s error was negligent, the question becomes how much money it will take to compensate the patient for his or her injuries. These may include pain and suffering, disfigurement, past medical expenses, the costs of future treatment, lost wages, loss of future earning capacity, loss of consortium, and, in particularly egregious cases, punitive damages. including pain and suffering. Since there is no set formula for establishing damages, the compensation that patients receive for similar injuries can vary significantly. This is why it is crucial that a patient be represented by a law firm that will aggressively pursue each and every element of damages to which the patient and possibly the patient’s family may be entitled. These may include pain and suffering, disfigurement, past medical expenses, the costs of future treatment, lost wages, loss of future earning capacity, loss of consortium, and, in particularly egregious cases, punitive damages.
It is important to note that there are very strict filing deadlines in medical malpractice actions. All of these cases are subject to a statute of limitations, after which a suit will be dismissed as too late except in very limited circumstances. A plaintiff must also determine which health care providers or hospitals should be named as defendants in cases in which a patient saw multiple providers or in which several doctors were involved in a surgery or birth. An attorney knowledgeable in medical malpractice law can help a patient navigate these potential pitfalls.
Numerous medical mistakes are made annually across the United States, resulting in a staggering amount of unnecessary pain, suffering, and even death affecting patients and their families. Unfortunately, medical malpractice cases can be difficult, expensive, and hard-fought by both the physicians accused of wrongdoing and their insurance companies. If your family has been affected by this type of harm in the Denver-Metro area or the surrounding communities, you should speak to an injury attorney about whether it would be worthwhile to file suit against a doctor, nurse, or hospital. We are here to assist you as you assert your legal right to seek compensation from the medical providers whose actions harmed you.
Asserting Your Rights against a Negligent Health Care Provider:
Medical malpractice lawsuits are a particular subcategory of a larger area of the law known as negligence. All injury lawsuits have the same four elements – duty to act reasonably, failure to act the way a reasonable person should act, causation, and damages. But, for medical malpractice cases there are some special requirements that must be met when filing a lawsuit. Most states, including Colorado, have statutes in place to detail the steps that a claimant must take in order to establish a cause of action against a doctor or other medical worker. One step is that an injured person must consult with a doctor who will certify that the actions of the defendant doctor were below the standard of care that a reasonable doctor would provide. At trial, expert testimony by a doctor or nurse is almost always required in order to establish both the standard of care and any breach of the standard by the defendant.
Sometimes a medical malpractice suit arises because a doctor failed to do something that a reasonable provider would have done under the same or similar circumstances, but other cases can arise because the physician did something that a prudent doctor would not have done. Common allegations include:
The doctor failed to diagnose a disease in a timely fashion;
There was an unreasonable delay between the diagnosis and treatment of a disease or injury;
A mistake occurred during surgery or birth, perhaps due to an error of a nurse anesthetist or anesthesiologist; or
A doctor operated on the wrong body part.
Once a patient has established that his or her medical provider’s error was negligent, the question becomes how much money it will take to compensate the patient for his or her injuries. These may include pain and suffering, disfigurement, past medical expenses, the costs of future treatment, lost wages, loss of future earning capacity, loss of consortium, and, in particularly egregious cases, punitive damages. including pain and suffering. Since there is no set formula for establishing damages, the compensation that patients receive for similar injuries can vary significantly. This is why it is crucial that a patient be represented by a law firm that will aggressively pursue each and every element of damages to which the patient and possibly the patient’s family may be entitled. These may include pain and suffering, disfigurement, past medical expenses, the costs of future treatment, lost wages, loss of future earning capacity, loss of consortium, and, in particularly egregious cases, punitive damages.
It is important to note that there are very strict filing deadlines in medical malpractice actions. All of these cases are subject to a statute of limitations, after which a suit will be dismissed as too late except in very limited circumstances. A plaintiff must also determine which health care providers or hospitals should be named as defendants in cases in which a patient saw multiple providers or in which several doctors were involved in a surgery or birth. An attorney knowledgeable in medical malpractice law can help a patient navigate these potential pitfalls.
