Medical malpractice laws vary by state and New Jersey is one state that offers patients significant options for compensation for injuries resulting from negligent medical care. In order to have a valid medical malpractice case in any state, there are a few legal elements that must be present.
First, medical negligence must be established. Medical negligence is defined as a deviation in medical treatment from the accepted medical standard of care. This essentially means that a doctor, dentist, nurse or other medical professional did not perform his/her duty as required.
Second, there must be some type of injury or patient damages for which to seek compensation.
Third there must be a causal relationship between the medical negligence and the patient injury. Due to the complex nature of medical care, this can often be one of the most difficult elements to prove in a medical malpractice case.
Statute of Limitations
Every state has different statutes of limitation regarding medical malpractice lawsuits. The statute of limitations is the time limit a patient has to bring a medical malpractice claim. After this time limit has expired, any lawsuit will be barred and the patient will be unable to collect any compensation.
In New Jersey, the usual statute of limitations is two years from the date of the injury, or when you discovered or should have discovered the injury. Many cases of injury resulting from medical negligence will be immediately and readily apparent. However, in other situations, months or even years may pass before injury is discovered.
For example, a surgeon may leave a medical instrument or gauze inside a patient and close the surgery site before noticing. Usually a count is done to ensure everything was removed from the patient, but this can fail. The patient may go on for some time before realizing something went wrong. Objects left in the body may go unnoticed until an infection takes hold and causes serious damage to internal organs or the patient complains of chronic pain.
Damages
You may collect for economic damage; that is money spent or lost by you as a result of the medical malpractice. You may also collect non-economic damages; the rules for non-economic damages may vary from state to state.
Non-economic damages are those that cannot be calculated numerically without subjective judgment. Most commonly, non-economic damages are paid for pain and suffering and in many cases may account for a large portion of the money paid to patients in medical malpractice cases.
Filing a Medical Negligence Claim in New Jersey
In order to have the best chance at successfully bringing a medical malpractice lawsuit in New Jersey, victims will need to find and retain the services of an experienced medical malpractice attorney.
Medical malpractice lawsuits are extremely complex, and not a job for your typical family lawyer. The laws and statutes are complex, and proving all of the necessary elements of a medical malpractice case requires someone with extensive experience as well as a proven record of taking cases all the way to trial.
Medical malpractice insurance companies have a team of medical malpractice defense attorneys whose job is to pay out as little as possible. When they are faced with a medical malpractice lawyer who is not afraid to go to trial, then they will be more likely to offer a substantial settlement amount to avoid the expense and time of fighting the case in court.
