Three Important New York Medical Malpractice Facts

Medical Malpractice Mistakes

Understanding New York Medical Malpractice: Three Quick Facts – True or False

New York medical malpractice is very complicated!  This area of practice is not practiced by every lawyer.  Thus, you need to get an experienced Kingston medical malpractice lawyer to represent you.  Most patients also have a lot of questions and understandings—also misunderstandings—of how medical malpractice cases work.  Here are some important facts that you need to know:

1) Fact – Not every patient injury is the result of New York medical malpractice.  Doctors and healthcare providers cannot promise or guarantee you a particular result.  Meaning that a healthcare provider cannot tell you that a surgery will be perfect, result in a specific outcome, and be performed without any complications.  That is because medicine cannot be done in this fashion in every incidence.  Health is not something that can be guaranteed like a piece of furniture or puzzle.  Thus, some injuries from medical treatment may not be ideal, but they may be inherent risks of the procedure and possible outcomes.

2) Fact – New York does not have a patient cap on non-economic damages.  Victims of medical malpractice in some states are faced with a medical malpractice cap on their non-economic damage, which means pain and suffering.  This is due to the tort reform lowering what patients can get and increase protections to healthcare providers to make it cheaper for them even if it is harming patients and victims of medical malpractice.

3) False – Medical malpractice cases are increasing.  This is FALSE.  Because of tort reforms, even in New York where there have not been any specific reforms, medical malpractice cases have actually gone down as for the number of filings.  Sometimes this is due to better patient care, but other times this is due to more aggressive handling of medical malpractice claims.  Warren Buffet recently purchased a large medical malpractice insurance company and publicly stated that he wanted to lower medical malpractice lawsuits by being more aggressive at the negotiating table. Other insurance carriers are doing this too, but requiring settlements to be CONFIDENTIAL.  This is horrible for other patients because that wipes are record of the lawsuit!  But overall filings are DOWN, and not up as reported.

But what do you think?  I would love to hear from you!  Leave a comment or I also welcome your phone call on my toll-free cell at 1-866-889-6882 or you can drop me an e-mail at jfisher@fishermalpracticelaw.com.  You are always welcome to request my FREE book, The Seven Deadly Mistakes of Malpractice Victims, at the home page of my website at www.protectingpatientrights.com.