Straight Talk About Medical Malpractice

You’ve been wronged by a doctor or hospital, but you can’t find a lawyer to take your case. And you can’t figure this out. The doctor botched your medical care and you were injured. Why won’t a lawyer take your case?

You deserve straight answers from a plaintiff’s medical malpractice lawyer. These are the top 5 insights about medical malpractice lawsuits.

Straight Talk #1: Most Cases are Lost at Trial

Medical malpractice cases are hard to win at trial. In New York, the jury finds in favor of the plaintiff in 23% of verdicts and nationwide, the percentage is even lower. Why is there such a low percentage of verdicts in favor of the plaintiff?

Good cases rarely go to verdict, and most do not even see a courtroom. The best cases settle and the weaker cases will often go to trial. There are exceptions. Often, our firm’s strongest cases go to verdict and occasionally, weaker cases settle. But that is the exception, not the norm.

Straight Talk #2: The Place of Your Lawsuit Matters Immensely

The place of your lawsuit is known as the venue. The venue of your lawsuit is immensely important to the outcome. The same set of facts may result in a plaintiff’s verdict in Bronx County, while a defense verdict is likely in many upstate counties. Why?

Jurors in the boroughs of New York City tend to be more liberal than those in upstate New York. Liberal jurors tend to be more receptive to an injury victim compared to conservative jurors.

In some cases, you will have more than one option for the venue of your lawsuit. If so, make sure your lawyer picks the venue that will be more favorable for a plaintiff.

Straight Talk #3: Most Law Firms Will Only Accept Cases Involving Catastrophic Injuries

Medical malpractice cases are very expensive. The cases expenses may range for $25,000 to $50,000 just to get a malpractice case to trial and the expenses typically range from a total of $50,000 to $200,000 when there is a trial.

Malpractice lawyers must make a financial decision to decline cases involving minor or moderate injuries because the potential recovery does not justify the substantial expense. For this reason, most malpractice lawyers will only accept cases involving catastrophic injuries, namely, those involving death, paralysis, loss of limb, blindness, or brain damage.

Straight Talk #4: Malpractice Lawsuits are Heavily Contested

Nothing is easy in malpractice lawsuits. Even the most clear-cut case of malpractice will be heavily denied by the defense and heavily defended. You should not expect a quick and easy settlement. That almost never happens.

The objective of the defense will be to delay and postpone your lawsuit at every opportunity. Your objective is simply to get your case to trial. A trial will give you the maximum monetary result for your case, whether via settlement or verdict.

Straight Talk #5: The Average Malpractice Lawsuit takes More than 3 Years

On average, malpractice lawsuits in upstate New York (north of New York City) take a little longer than 3 years and in the boroughs of New York City and Long Island, they take almost 4 years.

Our goal is to get your case to trial in 18 months (about ½ of the average duration of a malpractice lawsuit). This is not always possible, but this can be achieved when our cases are aggressively moved through discovery proceedings and depositions on a tight schedule.

Have questions? You are always welcome to speak with us by calling our office. We have a lot of valuable tips about medical malpractice on our firm’s YouTube channel, www.Lawyer-Alert.com.