When Americans are sick or they need emergency medical care, they trust that their healthcare providers are professional, trained and effective in providing the levels of care required. However, this often isn’t the case, and if you or a loved one have been injured or have died because of a medical mistake, you need to contact a Belvidere medical malpractice attorney as soon as possible.
One of the reasons it is so important to contact a medical malpractice attorney quickly is that these are often very complicated legal cases. While in some situations the mistakes made by the medical professional will be evident, in most it is a combination of factors that causes the death or further injury.
A medical malpractice attorney will have to be able to review the medical records as well as to understand the standards of care expected for the given procedure or treatment option. The attorney will also have the difficult job of assessing your case and determining if medical malpractice actually did occur.
Evaluating the Case
Not all deaths or injuries that happen while under medical care will result in medical malpractice. For example, if a patient underwent a specific treatment with known risks and clearly understood those risks, a death or side-effect known to be a risk with the treatment would not necessarily constitute medical malpractice.
On the other hand, the medical malpractice attorney may be able to show that the experimental treatment was not correctly administered to the patient, which would then become a medical malpractice case.
Legal and Medical Expertise
A top medical malpractice attorney in the Belvidere area will have experience and expertise both in this complex area of the law as well as in medical practices. This dual level of knowledge helps the attorney evaluate the case as well as to understand what experts and witnesses to use to prove the malpractice claim.
This is not an area of the law to use a general attorney or an attorney without any experience in cases similar to yours. These can be highly technical cases to pursue, and you need to have the best possible professional as your legal representative.
In many cases, a medical malpractice attorney will be able to settle for a fair compensation amount without the need to go through the courts. These settlements can include a range of different types of damages from medical expenses and funeral expenses to loss of income, loss of companionship and pain and suffering.
Talking to a medical malpractice attorney is the first step in the process. The attorney will review the case and provide you with information on your options going forward.
Fisk & Monteleone, Ltd. is a top law firm in Belvidere providing support when you need a medical malpractice attorney.
