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WHAT IS MEDICAL MALPRACTICE      

THE LEGAL PROCESS

The legal process begins the first time you meet with your attorney, not when you walk into the courtroom. The process begins with your attorney interviewing you, and obtaining your medical records for review and evaluation. Your attorney must then select a consulting expert witness to evaluate your records, examine you, and report their findings. At that point you are ready to submit a claim to the accused doctor's insurance company. There will be settlement negotiations between your attorney and the insurance claim adjuster. If the negotiations are not successful, a lawsuit will be filed and served upon the accused doctor. The following several months will be spent on pre-trial discovery. This allows both sides to discover what information is known by the other side. Discovery can include: Interrogatories (written questions), Request for Productions (written request for the documents held by the other party), Physical Examination (the defense may have the right to have you examined by their expert witness), and Deposition (an in-person out-of-court interview of all parties under oath). Following pre-trial discovery there is usually renewed settlement negotiations, which are often successful. At this point, if your case has not settled, it would go to trial.

At trial you, your attorney and your expert witnesses must prove:

1. The Standard of Care required for the care you received;
2. That the accused doctor violated the Standard of Care;
3. That the violation of the Standard was the cause of your injury; and
4. The dollar value of your case.


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