LEXINGTON MEDICAL MALPRACTICE ATTORNEYS

If you or a loved one suffered injury at the hands of a negligent medical professional, an experienced Lexington personal injury lawyer from our firm could help you recover a substantial settlement. However, Kentucky medical malpractice cases are not easy to win and might become even more difficult in the future. Senate Bill 20, if passed, would require plaintiffs to obtain an “affidavit of merit” from an expert witness before their case can begin.

While this will likely make a malpractice case more difficult, our Lexington medical malpractice lawyers know what it takes to prove a case. Hughes & Coleman Injury Lawyers has extensive resources and a long track record of medical malpractice case success, and we want to put those to work for you.

For your free consultation with our team, call our office today: 800-800-4600.

You could have a valid malpractice claim if a doctor or healthcare provider committed an error or an act of negligence and you or a loved one suffered injury because of it. However, these cases are complicated and difficult to win. We understand the importance of building a thorough and compelling case on your behalf. We also know that a successful medical malpractice lawsuit proves four things:

• The doctor or provider owed you a duty of care;
• The doctor or provider did not uphold this duty;
• You suffered an injury because of this failure;
• Your injury caused you to incur damages.

Duty of Care

A successful medical malpractice case requires proof of a duty of care. This duty is implicit in any doctor-patient relationship. Establishing a relationship is straightforward; if we can produce a medical bill from the doctor’s office that you paid, we can establish a doctor-patient relationship.

Failure of Duty

A successful case next requires us to show that the doctor or provider did not uphold this duty, also known as a “standard of care.” We show this by comparing the medical professional’s actions to those of a reasonable person, in this case, another doctor or provider faced with the same situation. If another doctor (in the same field, same geographical area, and with the same training) would have behaved differently and exercised greater care, we can demonstrate that the medical professional in question did not uphold the standard of care.

Injury to Patient

Once we have established a duty of care and subsequent failure of that duty, we must link it to an injury suffered by you or your loved one. For instance, if the doctor’s failure involved the misdiagnosis of a serious condition, we can show how this error allowed the condition to worsen in your body, making later treatment more painful and expensive than it should have been.

This element is integral; if the doctor made a mistake but you did not suffer injury, you have no case. For example, if the doctor misdiagnosed you, realized he made a mistake five days later, and then diagnosed you correctly, you likely did not suffer any lasting injuries and do not have a case.

You Suffered Damages Because of the Mistake

The final element of a successful malpractice lawsuit is to show how your injuries caused you to incur compensable damages. These can be economic damages, such as medical bills and lost wages, as well as noneconomic damages, such as pain and suffering.

At Hughes & Coleman, our Lexington medical malpractice attorneys exhaust every option to make sure you receive the highest level of compensation for which you are eligible. If the defendant is not agreeable to a settlement outside of court, we do not hesitate to file suit and take your case to court where we present overwhelming evidence showing that the defendant is liable. We have a long history of success both in obtaining out-of-court settlements and positive jury verdicts.

In a medical malpractice claim, we pursue both economic and noneconomic damages. Economic damages involve actual financial losses that can be quantified in dollar terms, such as:

• Medical bills: The cost of both your current and anticipated future costs of medical treatment, including surgery, hospitalizations, doctor visits, medication, and medical devices.
• Lost wages: The money you are not able to earn at work while you recover from your injuries or attend medical appointments.
• Reduced earning capacity: The difference in what you are capable of earning after your injury and what you would be earning had you never been a victim of medical malpractice.

Noneconomic damages are subjective losses that do not have a specific dollar value. They include items such as the following:

• Pain and suffering: The time you have spent dealing with the physical pain from your injury.
• Emotional anguish: Emotional suffering that might include fear, apprehension, nightmares, avoidance behaviors, and loss of enjoyment of life.
• Loss of consortium: The decreased ability to maintain normal familial relationships, including sexual intimacy with a spouse.
• Scarring and disfigurement: The anguish and humiliation resulting from scarring or disfigurement that changes your appearance permanently or on a long-term basis.

In some instances, we can also argue for punitive damages. The court awards these not as compensation for the victim but as a punishment when the evidence shows that the responsible party’s actions were not just negligent but malicious or grossly negligent. At your initial consultation, we will discuss whether punitive damages might be an option.