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THE LEGAL PROCESS
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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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