How to Prove Negligence in a Boston Medical Malpractice Case

By Your Health Magazine

Like every liable party in a personal injury case, health professionals are responsible for paying compensation when you experience injury or harm due to their negligence. However, to gain this compensation, you must prove that the health professional was negligent, leading to your injury or harm.

Proving negligence means showing fault or proving liability. It requires more than making accusatory statements. You must prove your case beyond a reasonable doubt to earn satisfactory compensation. This article shows how to prove medical negligence in a medical malpractice case and the types of damages you can claim.

What Medical Malpractice Involves

Medical malpractice generally describes misconduct or negligence displayed by a healthcare professional that leads to injury or harm to a patient. Malpractice often occurs when the healthcare provider deviates from established professional health practices and fails to meet an acceptable standard of care.

Patients can claim medical malpractice when their healthcare professional neglects to provide the appropriate treatment or take action, or even when they provide substandard treatment that harms the patient.

While healthcare professionals are not liable for all harms a patient may experience, they are legally responsible for any harm or injury acquired due to a deviation or reduction in the expected standard of care. Below are some common examples of cases that may prompt a malpractice lawsuit:

Leaving items in a patient’s body after surgery
Failure to diagnose or misdiagnosis
Failure to order the required tests or act on their results
Operating on the wrong body part
Causing a fatal infection
Failure to acquire informed consent for a treatment or procedure
Performing an incorrect or unnecessary surgery

How to Prove Negligence and Liability

The process for proving medical negligence and liability is the same for all personal injury cases, including medical malpractice. It requires proving or satisfying the four elements of negligence, from duty of care to breach of duty, causation, and damages. Below are the steps for proving negligence in a medical malpractice case:

Establish a Duty of Care

A duty of care is a legal obligation to act reasonably and avoid careless action that could cause foreseeable harm to others. Acting reasonably means behaving as a reasonable and rational person would to avoid harm, including anticipating the harm and taking steps to avoid it.

Medical health professionals have a duty of care to ensure the safety of their patients. This involves meeting the acceptable standard of care and avoiding actions and errors that could endanger patients’ lives.

While all these may sound like general knowledge, it is the foundation for any medical malpractice case. You must establish this duty to strengthen your case. It often helps to outline the standard medical procedures and precautions for your case when establishing a duty of care.

Breach of Duty

After showing the expected duty of care, the next step to prove negligence and liability is to show the breach of duty. A healthcare professional breaches duty when they fail to meet the standard of reasonable care and cause foreseeable harm.

This breach of duty is also known as negligence. The breach of duty involves inaction or wrong actions taken by the healthcare professionals. It is easier to prove breach of duty after establishing a duty of care by outlining the standard medical procedures required for your case.

Unlike the duty of care that is easily established based on popular laws and regulations, you need evidence to prove breach of duty. You need evidence to show that the healthcare professional failed to do what was required of them. A detailed medical report, your testimony, or a witness’s testimony can be strong evidence.

Causation

The first two elements discussed can prove negligence in any personal injury case, but you need more to prove liability. The third element, causation, can help prove liability or fault.

Causation is the legal element that establishes a direct link between the medical professional’s negligent or wrongful action and the victim’s injuries, harm, or damages. It involves proving that the healthcare professional’s actions or inaction directly caused your harm or injuries and nothing else.

In this element, it is also important to present evidence. Your evidence should show that the negligent action of the healthcare professional was the actual and proximate cause of your injury or harm. Pieces of evidence like medical reports, expert and professional testimonies are invaluable.

Damages

Proving damages is another important element of negligence. It helps to strengthen the liability already established and justify your compensation. Damages refer to the actual harm or loss you suffered due to the negligence of the healthcare professional.

When proving damages, you must show that the at-fault party’s negligence directly caused the harm or loss suffered. Here, too, evidence is important to prove damages. Medical reports, photos, and videos are good pieces of evidence you can use to prove damages. This final element is important because you cannot prove negligence or request compensation without proving damages or actual harm.

Damages You Can Claim for Medical Malpractice

You can claim compensatory damages for a medical malpractice case. These damages could be economic or non-economic damages or both. Consider what each entails:

Economic Damages

Economic damages refer to the tangible and quantifiable financial losses directly resulting from the medical negligence. These damages cover medical bills, lost wages, and other out-of-pocket expenses, including transportation and assistive or recovery devices.

Economic damages aim mainly to compensate for the direct financial losses you incurred as a result of the medical negligence to maintain your financial position despite your situation. With economic damages, you can claim the following:

Medical expenses
Legal fees
Lost wages
Property damage
Lost business opportunity
Loss of future income

Non-Economic Damages

Non-economic damages measure and compensate for the intangible losses in a medical malpractice case. These damages compensate for your mental and emotional losses in a medical malpractice case.

Unlike economic damages, these damages do not have direct financial value. Instead, they are translated into financial value, determined by assessing the impact of the injury or harm on the individual’s health, life, and activities.

Given their flexible measurement pattern, it is best to have professionals negotiate non-economic damages for you. A Boston law firm specializing in personal injury will offer excellent advocacy services for a settlement or lawsuit. Non-economic damages can compensate for the following:

Pain and suffering
Emotional distress
Loss of consortium
Scarring and disfigurement
Loss of enjoyment of life

Endnote

Proving negligence and liability is the surest way to earn compensation for a medical malpractice case in Boston. You can achieve this by proving the four elements of negligence, including duty of care, breach of duty, causation, and damages. After proving negligence and liability, strengthen your claim for economic and non-economic damages to optimize your settlement.