In most personal injury lawsuits, the plaintiff will want to identify as many liable parties as possible. The more liable parties you can name, the higher chances you’ll have of receiving a financial recovery. In regard to medical malpractice cases, then, who should you look to when pointing the finger of blame?
- Doctors and hospital staff: Your doctor or a hospital staff member could be to blame for your medical malpractice. As such, you’ll want to review the decision made by your doctor, the information he or she had available for making these decisions and whether these decisions made practical medical sense given the facts at hand.
- Hospitals and medical facilities: Modern hospitals are often short on staff and they push the limit of what they can achieve with the smallest number of people. Your hospital might also fail to maintain its equipment or fail to have certain supplies on immediate hand that could have led to your injury.
- Vicarious liability: Even if the hospital wasn’t at fault, but a staff member was, the hospital will probably be liable for the employee’s actions through the legal concept of vicarious liability or “Respondeat Superior,” which means in old Latin, “Let the master respond.” Basically, employers can be held liable for the actions carried out by their employees.
Were you hurt by a negligent doctor, medical staff member or medical facility? You may be able to pursue a financial claim for financial justice and restitution by filing a personal injury action in civil court. It’s important to pursue such an action as soon as possible, however, as statutes of limitation will bar you from pursuing a medical negligence claim after a certain amount of time has passed.
Source: FindLaw, “Medical Malpractice: Who Can Be Sued?,” accessed Nov. 17, 2017
