Penticton Medical Malpractice Lawyer
Every day, patients in Penticton and throughout British Columbia suffer injuries as a result of medical negligence. Many of those injuries are minor and cause no significant damages to the patient. However, the hundreds of medical malpractice lawsuits that are filed across Canada every year, suggest that a certain percentage of those injuries are significant. If this has happened to you, you may need a medical malpractice law firm.
Preszler Law provides skilled legal representation in this area of personal injury. The Canadian Medical Practice Association (CMPA), which defends a majority of Canadian physicians in malpractice cases, will fight aggressively to deny or limit the damages that an injured party might deserve. Our Penticton personal injury lawyers will stand up to the CMPA and fight for the full amount of damages that are required to compensate our clients for their losses.
Causes of Action in Medical Negligence Cases
Physicians and health care organizations are required to provide services that meet or exceed a specific standard of care. Your lawyer will rely on medical expert witnesses to define the relevant standard and will use the specific facts of your case to demonstrate how your doctor did not meet that standard.
Within this basic definition, the causes of action in your medical malpractice lawsuit will focus on the specific details of your case, including, for example:
- your doctor misdiagnosed your illness or medical condition, or recommended an incorrect treatment plan;
- your physician, hospital, or medical center did not receive your informed consent to administer services or treatments, and failed to warn you about potential consequences or side effects of those treatments;
- your surgeon left medical implements in your body, injured other organs while performing surgery, or performed surgery incorrectly.
You might also have a medical malpractice cause of action if a doctor or hospital discriminated against you or provided substandard treatment on account of your race, gender, or ethnicity.
Medical Malpractice Damages
The compensation that you may be able to recover will always be a function of the specific facts of your case. A medical malpractice lawyer will analyze those facts to verify that your doctor did not meet the applicable standard of care, that you were injured as a result of that failure, and that you suffered financial losses as a result of those injuries.
The total amount of the compensation that you may be entitled to receive might include all of your unreimbursed costs and expenses for extra medical services. You might also be able to recover damages to compensate for the income and job opportunities that you lost while you were recovering. The CMPA will fight to reject damages for your pain and suffering, and in virtually every case, Canadian law caps them at $350,000. When you are considering retaining a medical malpractice lawyer, you should ask about that lawyer’s experience in recovering damages for pain and suffering.
Filing and Prosecuting Your Medical Malpractice Lawsuit
Under Canadian law, you must file your medical malpractice lawsuit within two years after you leave the doctor’s office, or you are discharged from a hospital. You will lose your right to sue for medical negligence if you fail to meet this deadline. Two years seems like a long time, but your lawyer will need to conduct certain due diligence before your case is filed. This includes consulting with medical experts, reviewing all of the files and records that you can provide regarding your case, and recovering other relevant documents and materials.
In every instance, after you have suffered medical malpractice injuries you should follow all plans and recommendations from health care professionals who are treating you. Your failure to follow up can be used to argue that your injuries are less serious than you claim.
Contact Preszler Law for a Free Consultation About Your Case
Local residents can consult with Penticton personal injury lawyers at our offices at 1631 Dickson Avenue in Kelowna or any one of our six other offices in British Columbia. Your initial consultation is always free. Moreover, if you retain one of our lawyers and we agree to accept your case, you will never be billed directly for our services. Rather, we will earn our fees from the monetary damages that we recover for you. If we cannot recover damages, you will owe us nothing.
