Settlement of a Medical Malpractice Arbitration claim is becoming a more and more an accepted option for handling a medical malpractice claim. Healthcare providers and injured patients both seem to like the arbitration procedure better than the usual State court complaint and trail system but likely for different reasons. Claimants that like arbitration claim the process is faster, fairer and cheaper that a State court trial but claimants that dislike the process claim it is skewed unfairly in the healthcare provider’s favor and that it is hard to track the complaints filed and hard to build a case using legal precedents from previous arbitration cases. Some even claim the arbitration system itself is “secretive” and unfair to medical negligence claimants. For example a medical negligence claimant may not have access to the level of discovery to obtain admissible facts that would be afforded to him by a State trial court.
How Does Arbitration Work?
Binding arbitration is a voluntary procedure. Both sides agree to have their dispute case heard by a neutral, independent, third party who will hear all the medical negligence related evidence and then render a decision; sounds pretty easy, perhaps too easy. The binding arbitration review process involves a mini trial with relaxed evidentiary rules such that evidence that might not be admissible in a trial court will be considered by an arbitrator. The ruling of the arbitrator(s) is final and will be binding upon the parties thus ending the medical malpractice dispute. There can be no second shot at a win in a State trial court.
Hi-Lo Gamble
The parties can also agree, in advance of a hearing, to use a form of arbitration called High/Low. They agree on a possible high figure and respective possible low figure. They are agreeing to limit the arbitrator’s ward to no higher than the high figure but no lower than the low figure if he should in fact find in the claimant’s favor. The key element here is that the arbitrator does not know what the high and low figures agreed upon were until after he makes an award in a claimant’s favor.
Getting Legal Help
Explore the possibility of arbitration for disposing of your medical malpractice action with a qualified medical malpractice attorney who has experience with arbitration cases and trial court malpractice cases. Maybe this is the way to quickly resolve your claim and finally access a solution to the financial problems and medical bills that have plagued you since the medical negligence related injury happened.
