Medical Malpractice 101

For those interested in medical malpractice, the movie The Verdict on Netflix is a decent place to start. It deals with a washed up, borderline alcoholic lawyer, that is handed the case of a lifetime on a silver platter. Two of the most prominent doctors in town have been neglecting their medical duties, killing patients and buying off their families with money from the church. But Frank Galvin, the washed up lawyer refuses to settle, and takes the doctors and the diocese for every penny there’re worth. O justice thou art served graciously by Netflix.

Medical Malpractice is a very serious form of negligence. It results when there is an act of omission by a health care professional in which their treatment fails to comply with a standard measure of practice in the medical community, causing death or injury to victim. Van Norman Law has extensive experience dealing with medical malpractice cases, and has had immense success helping victims procure the compensation they deserve.

Qualifications for Pressing a Medical Malpractice Claim

In order to press a medical malpractice suit, a plaintiff must satisfy five elements. First, there must be a duty owed to the patient; the hospital and its medical professionals must assume a duty to provide adequate care to the patient for their services; this duty must be breached and it must cause an injury. It also must be shown that the medical professionals deviated from the accepted standard of care. For instance, in the Verdict the doctors failed to assure that the patient had not ate prior to the surgery. But patient had, and they failed to act according to duty, as a result she died chocking on her own vomit. The victim’s family members were awarded 2 million dollars.