There are two types of expenses in bringing a medical malpractice or personal injury case — fees and costs. Fees are earned by the attorney who represents a client. Costs are expenses incurred in pursuing a case. Costs include such expenses as filing fees, medical record costs, expert witness fees, deposition costs, travel expenses, postage and copying costs. There are…
National data suggest that only about 15% of all medical malpractice cases go to trial, meaning that as many as 85% of such cases are settled. Other types of personal injury claims have an even higher rate of settlement. While these figures undoubtedly suggest that a filed case is much more likely to settle than go to trial, each case…
At Shevlin Smith, we always advocate that an injured person’s first concern should be to seek any medical treatment that is necessary to address the injuries suffered. Whether the injured person should go to the emergency department of a hospital, or first seek treatment from a primary care physician or specialist is case-specific, and cannot be answered on a general…
Generally speaking, there are two different types of fees charged by attorneys. One type of fee is an hourly fee, where the attorney charges a set fee for the actual time that the attorney spends on your case. With an hourly fee agreement, the client pays the attorney whether the case is ultimately won or lost (i.e. the fee is…
A misdiagnosis or the failure to make a diagnosis is not always considered medical malpractice. Not all diseases have a definitive test that will absolutely diagnose or rule out a disease. Some diseases are so rare that more common diseases are considered first. Some diseases mimic other diseases. In those types of cases, the determination of negligence will be based…
Medical malpractice is when a medical provider has not acted in accordance with recognized standards of care. Typically, when a patient is diagnosed with infection, a course of treatment with antibiotics is required. If your infection was diagnosed as some other type of illness, if you were given an antibiotic that was not proper for your type of infection, or…
In our experience, health care providers rarely disclose that a medical mistake or negligence occurred. This is true even for health care providers who become involved in patient care after the mistake or negligence has already occurred. As a result, medical records often need to be obtained in order to determine what happened. In 2005, Virginia passed a law that…
The term “catastrophic” injury is used in the legal community as a means of differentiating between injuries that are severe and generally permanent in nature from injuries that are less severe and generally temporary in nature. A catastrophic injury can occur as a result of medical malpractice, a car accident, a truck accident, or some other type of event. The term “catastrophic”…
A spinal cord injury is defined as damage to the spinal cord that leads to neurological deficits — such as paralysis, weakness, numbness, or an inability to control bowel and bladder functions. The spinal cord can be injured by: (1) direct trauma (accident or fall); (2) loss of sufficient blood supply due to internal bleeding, prolonged compression from a herniated disc,…
It’s hard to believe, but many surgical errors are the result of doctor negligence; however, not all mishaps that occur during surgery are considered medical malpractice. So how do you know if the error that occurred during your surgery would be grounds for a medical malpractice lawsuit? Any time there is an unexpected outcome from surgery, it is always worthwhile…