You go to the hospital to seek treatment because you’re not feeling well. You check-in, a medical assistant may take down your medical history, a nurse may come in and check on a few things, and then you may see a physician assistant, nurse practitioner, or doctor. If your treating physician diagnoses you with something that requires medication, you may need to go to a pharmacist. If there’s an emergency situation, you may require imaging, need to see a specialist, or stay overnight and have a different set of nurses and doctors taking care of you. A respiratory technician, physical therapist, or other auxiliary health care personnel may also be involved in your care at the hospital.
In the health care system, you rely on many people to provide you with the care you need. However, if any of these medical providers makes a mistake that causes you harm, you could end up dealing with a much worse condition than when you originally sought treatment.
It’s bad enough to have a new illness or injuries to deal with, but then there’s the cost of this mistake that makes matters worse. Know that you can turn to a Scottsdale medical malpractice lawyer to fight for you to get the financial settlement you deserve when someone else’s negligence caused you harm (at no fault of your own).
Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm protects the rights of medical malpractice victims. The costs of another’s mistake could have prolonged an illness, causing you avoidable suffering and leading to you undergoing treatment for something you didn’t have. The damage done by a mistake like this may not be reversible. It may have been life-altering and left behind permanent injuries. It could have even claimed a loved one’s life. The key element among medical malpractice incidents is that they all are attributable to negligence, and they are all preventable.
Affording the treatment to fix a medical mistake can be astronomical—that’s why you need an experienced medical malpractice attorney on your side. Our medical malpractice lawyers in Scottsdale, AZ will seek full and fair compensation on your behalf.
Why Do You Need a Medical Malpractice Lawyer on Your Side?
Medical malpractice plaintiffs often face an uphill battle when seeking justice for injuries after they’ve been harmed due to a medical malpractice event. Holding negligent medical professionals accountable takes an experienced medical malpractice lawyer who specializes in this area of Arizona law and has experience building strong personal injury cases to help you have a successful outcome in your own legal matter.
Any attorney you hire to represent you should:
Have Knowledge About Arizona Statutes of Limitations
Your lawyer should be aware of the statute of limitations that applies to personal injury cases like yours and make sure to file your medical malpractice claim within that statute of limitations. In Arizona, victims have two years after suffering an injury to come forward and file a claim or medical malpractice lawsuit.
However, there are some exceptions to this rule that may apply to your case, such as:
- If you became aware of your injury or illness stemming from the medical negligence some time after its onset (in other words, the harm caused wasn’t immediately apparent)
- When the medical malpractice victim was a minor when the error or mistake occurred
Make Sure You Don’t Accept a Lowball Offer
Your attorney should also be committed to protecting you from settlements that are far less than you deserve for the pain, stress, and other adversities you’ve had to endure.
We know the legal process can be long and arduous. Many medical malpractice victims, especially ones representing themselves without the assistance of legal counsel, often make the mistake of accepting an insurance company’s first settlement offer. They do this because they either think that they won’t receive another (better) settlement offer or simply because they just want to move on with their life.
However, if the settlement is far less than the costs you’ve amassed or what you feel is fair for the losses you’ve endured, then you may run into unnecessary financial troubles later as you realize you need additional, expensive medical care and have to miss work. Your Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm attorney will accurately calculate the proper compensation you’re owed and negotiate to get the best settlement offer for you.
Be Open To Providing Legal Representation in a Courtroom
Settling with an insurance company outside of court isn’t always possible. That may be the case because:
- The insurer is denying liability
- An insurer is not willing to accept the monetary amount you demanded for noneconomic damages
If your medical malpractice case proceeds to trial, you’ll definitely want an Arizona trial lawyer on your side. Presenting personal injury cases in court to juries is an entire skill in and of itself. Our Scottsdale medical malpractice attorneys can help you prepare for this legal process, so you’re ready when the time comes to try your case in front of a judge and jury.
In all situations, whether your medical malpractice case ends up being settled through negotiation or litigation, having a lawyer means that you will have someone representing your best interests at every turn. If there’s one detail you should know about our Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm team, it’s that we’re going to fight for your financial future so you can proceed with your recovery with peace of mind.
When Does Medical Negligence Warrant Filing Medical Malpractice Claims?
With the myriad types of medical professionals, places to get treatment, procedures patients undergo, and all the kinds of medication that could be prescribed to you, there are also many ways that medical malpractice can occur.
Some of the most common ways doctors and other health care providers harm patients or clients via medical errors include:
- Medication errors
- Misdiagnoses
- Failure to diagnose
- Informed consent concerns
- Surgical errors or surgical mistakes
- Misreading of imaging studies (like X-rays)
- Anesthesia errors
- Causing childbirth injuries by failing to monitor mom and baby’s vital signs or using assistive devices
- Emergency room errors
- Improper identification of pathological specimens (like biopsies)
- Failure to obtain informed consent
While the range of outcomes that can result from medical malpractice is wide, each of them shares one commonality, which is that they can all result in serious financial and emotional consequences for victims.
The good news is that you can take action to hold doctors and other medical professionals who acted negligently (in a way that deviated from the acceptable medical standard) responsible for their medical error and the losses you’ve incurred. Arizona law allows injury victims to file medical malpractice claims to recoup these damages.
Damages Injury Victims May Qualify for in Arizona Medical Malpractice Cases
When your Scottsdale medical malpractice attorney from Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm is analyzing your losses, they break them down into financial and emotional damages. These damages are known as economic and non-economic losses to lawyers with extensive experience providing legal representation to personal injury victims like the attorneys in our law office.
In Arizona medical malpractice cases like yours, you may be able to recover compensation for losses such as:
- Medical costs (past and future health care)
- Lost wages
- Loss of earnings
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of consortium (in the event you lost a loved one to a wrongful death)
- Mental anguish
- Loss of enjoyment of life
Factors Impacting How Much in Damages You Can Recover in a Medical Malpractice Case
Many factors can influence what a medical malpractice claim is worth, including:
- The severity of injuries medical malpractice victims suffer
- Whether a full recovery is possible and how long it will take
- How the residual injuries stemming from the medical mistake affect a person’s ability to work in the future
Fortunately, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Arizona is one of a handful of states that doesn’t place a cap on damages a victim can recover in a personal injury case.
Any Scottsdale medical malpractice attorney at Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm has the legal knowledge of applicable Arizona law and extensive experience providing legal representation to individuals who’ve been harmed by medical errors like you.
Our legal team can assess whether you have a valid medical malpractice claim during your free consultation and if so, take on and investigate your case more thoroughly on a contingency fee basis. This means that our attorneys don’t get paid unless we recover an insurance award or jury verdict settlement by filing medical malpractice claims.
Also, rest assured that handling complex medical malpractice cases doesn’t intimidate us. We will explore all the points of your medical error case and how you were affected, even if the situation necessitates us bringing in health care expert witnesses to assess the medical care you received and how it deviated from the standard of care other providers would have provided.
How Do You Prove Medical Malpractice in Scottsdale, AZ?
At the center of each medical malpractice claim, certain facts have to be present so you can come forward with a claim. Your lawyer will use the evidence to show that:
- A doctor-patient relationship existed, establishing they are to treat you within the standard of care.
- Your doctor made a mistake during your treatment and did not meet the standard of care.
- This medical error hurt you.
- You suffered further injuries and damages because of the malpractice.
Proving these points often necessitates us compiling more evidence than just medical records in medical malpractice cases.
Let a Scottsdale Medical Malpractice Attorney Handle Your Case
As hinted at above, we must often consult with expert witnesses who can testify to the treatment you received. An expert witness will have a similar medical background as the medical professional who treated you and can attest if your treatment met the standard of care or how other competent medical professionals in that field would have treated you. Their testimony can illustrate how you weren’t given the proper care and suffered because of it.
During this time, you will likely be recovering from injuries. Being at home, unable to work, and looking down a long road to recovery is a lot for anyone to experience. When you have so much to handle on your own, the legal part of your injury can be particularly stressful. That’s why a medical malpractice attorney is here to help.
Our firm can take on building evidence in the medical malpractice case. We’ll deal with insurance companies and representatives for the medical professionals involved with your medical malpractice claims. We’ll also see your case through the court system if necessary.
With our expertise, you can rest assured that everything will be done correctly. We do everything we can to get our clients the justice they deserve by filing medical malpractice lawsuits.
