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ccEveryone who has a bad outcome from a medical operation, or lack thereof, feels they have a medical negligence lawsuit. It’s not that easy. Many lawsuits must be looked at in reverse, starting with the damages to the individual. If the person is not seriously and permanently injured, then a malpractice claim may not be justified even if there is negligence by a doctor. This is true because these lawsuits are so costly to pursue. Not to say anything of the time and effort needed to make a case. The claim has to be economically and productively feasible. Costs associated with a medical malpractice lawsuit will usually have a range of $25,000.00 to $100,000. In certain types of medical negligence actions the costs will far exceed this range. The main expenses involve hiring of experts in the various fields necessary in order to establish each specific area that must be proven. One expert may be retained to establish that the defendant medical practitioner breached the standard of care for physicians practicing in that specialty. Another may need to provide testimony to establish that the breach of the standard of care was the cause of the injury. Yet others may need to establish the nature and extent of the injuries. Many medical negligence claims, such as birth trauma cases require several different experts with varying expertise. Some of these lawsuits occur because the fetus has been deprived of sufficient oxygen for a period of time. Cerebral palsy can be the result. Experts, such as obstetricians, nurses, pediatric neurologist, pediatric neuroradiologists, pathologists, economists, and life expectancy experts are the norm in these cases. Most of the experts have to be retained from other states in which the case is being litigated. Doctors don’t like to testify against their in-state brothers. The costs of the experts plus travel and other associated expenses will rise quickly. Consider the cost for the expert to review hundreds of pages of medical records at $300.00 to $1000.00 per hour, plus costs of depositions at $1500.00 to $5000.00 plus trial testimony at $5000.00 to $10,000.00 or more for one witness. It’s easy to see why these lawsuits must be viewed from an economic standpoint before they are ever undertaken. People who have been wronged by the medical profession need to understand that simply being wronged does not automatically mean they should pursue a medical negligence case. Attorneys handling these cases should not accept them solely because the physician has been negligent. Unfortunately, economic realities must be considered. Take a situation where a person has been damaged to the extent that a jury might give them $50,000.00. If it cost $25,000.00 to pursue it, not counting attorney’s fees, the lawsuit is not economically feasible. Hard decisions need to be made by a client and the lawyer when medical malpractice lawsuits are involved. If the wrong decision is made, no one will be happy in the end. The wronged party will feel wronged again… this time by the legal profession rather than the medical profession. This article was written by Tulsa, Oklahoma medical malpractice lawyer Don Bolt. Don Bolt is an attorney with www.tulsalawyeradvice.com, Tulsa, Oklahoma, which serves the needs of all medical negligence victims across the state of Oklahoma. Attorney Don Bolt has over 17 years of legal experience and practices in the areas of: Personal injury, car accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, insurance disputes, nursing home abuse, defective dangerous products and medical malpractice.
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