Illinois Doctor Error Attorney
We all make professional errors. Many of us make such mistakes every day. Doctors are people too, so they make errors as well. However, mostly because the duty of care is so lofty, any medical error is usually medical negligence. Because of their extensive training, experience, and education, doctors have little room for mistakes. Instead, most diagnosis, treatment, and other errors are negligence. If negligence causes injury, the victim is entitled to financial compensation.
The diligent Illinois doctor error attorneys at Wais, Vogelstein, Forman, Koch & Norman are not perfect. Like everyone else, we make mistakes. However, since we have routinely handled these matters for decades in jurisdictions around the country, we rarely make mistakes in these claims. Furthermore, when mistakes happen, we do not run from them or blame others for them. Instead, we immediately take responsibility for them and then work to make things right. As a result, your claim for damages stays on track.
Building Negligence Claims
Medical negligence cases are perhaps the most complex kinds of injury claims. Personal injury claims usually include professional malpractice, premises liability, such as falls and swimming pool drownings, and car crashes. These diverse cases all have the same five basic elements:
- Duty: As mentioned, doctors have a very high duty of care. This legal responsibility level is a fiduciary duty. That’s much higher than the duty of reasonable care, which applies in most other injury claims. That’s why doctors have little margin for error, and drivers can sometimes get away with mistakes.
- Breach: A breach of duty is a violation of the standard of care. The standard of care usually dictates diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up. Any deviation from this standard of care is usually a breach of duty.
- Cause: Chicago doctor error attorneys must establish a connection between breach and damages. If Dr. X over bills for a medical service, that’s a breach of duty. But this breach probably did not physically injure the patient, especially if a health insurance company or other third party paid the errant bill.
- Foreseeability: Basically, foreseeable is a legal term that means possible. If a robber shoots Ed as he walks out of his doctor’s office, that injury was probably not foreseeable, as far as Ed’s doctor was concerned.
- Damage: In a few cases, emotional distress alone could be sufficient damage. But in most cases, the victim must sustain a physical injury. It doesn’t matter how minute that injury is, at least in this context.
Duty and foreseeability are usually legal questions a judge must resolve. Victim/plaintiffs must establish the other three by a preponderance of the evidence (more likely than not).
Resolving Negligence Claims
Compensation in a negligence case usually includes money for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering. Additional punitive damages are usually available in medical negligence claims as well.
Usually, insurance companies delay paying compensation as long as possible. They normally only relent after mediation, which is a court-supervised negotiation session.
To delay the process, insurance companies often make low-ball offers or refuse to make any meaningful compromises. But during mediation, both sides have a duty to negotiate in good faith. That means no low-ball offers or delay tactics. Since insurance company attorneys must discuss the merits of the case instead of relying on a lot of simple tricks and nonsense, mediation is about 90 percent successful.
Count on a Dedicated Chicago Cook County Attorney
Injury victims are usually entitled to significant compensation. For a free consultation with an experienced doctor error attorney in Chicago, contact Wais, Vogelstein, Forman, Koch & Norman by going online or calling 410-567-0800. You have a limited amount of time to act.
