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If you file a medical malpractice claim or lawsuit against a healthcare provider like a doctor, hospital, or treatment center, you must prove all of the allegations of your case with evidence. Your medical malpractice lawyer probably did not go to medical school, so how do they help you prove medical malpractice or negligence?
This blog will talk about how to prove your case in a medical malpractice lawsuit, including medical record keeping, how a lawyer finds expert witnesses to testify, and additional benefits of hiring a lawyer who is skilled at medical malpractice cases that go to trial. A New Jersey medical malpractice lawyer could help you go after the compensation you deserve from the liable parties.
Your Records Could Make or Break Your Medical Malpractice Case
Medical malpractice law requires a successful plaintiff to prove all of the elements of their case, and doing that requires evidence. Your attorney can gather your medical records from the doctors and hospitals, but they will need you to provide the names and contact information and the approximate dates of when you received services from those healthcare providers.
As soon as you realize that you might have a medical malpractice case, you will want to sit down and write a narrative account of what happened, with as many details as you can remember. Do not editorialize in this narrative. For example, you might think the person who treated you was a jerk, but your narrative should state only facts, not conclusions.
The defense lawyers for the doctor or hospital can subpoena evidence like your journals, diaries, or other things that might be relevant to the case, so be sure only to write things that could be read to a judge or jury. It is best to keep your narrative as a separate document so that the defense cannot pry into unrelated material.
You will also need medical records that establish the harm you suffered as a result of the medical malpractice, so you will want to go to a different doctor as soon as you realize the problem. You do not want to rely only on your own testimony about the harm you suffered because you need objective proof from a medical expert.
How a Medical Malpractice Lawyer Finds Expert Witnesses to Testify
The details of the individual medical malpractice case will determine how the attorney locates the best expert witness to testify at trial. There are directories the lawyer can use to find an expert witness with expertise in the specific issue in question in the lawsuit.
Sometimes, the attorney will go outside of the standard resources and contact a physician with an excellent reputation in the field and ask if they will serve as an expert witness. Often, a doctor is not willing to testify against another doctor in the local medical community, so the medical malpractice attorney will have to look in a different city for an expert witness.
Benefits of Hiring a Medical Malpractice Lawyer
After suffering harm as a result of medical negligence, the last thing you need is to have to deal with the defendant’s lawyers and the insurance company’s investigators and claims adjusters. When you hire a medical malpractice attorney to handle your case, you get the rest and recuperation you need because your lawyer does all the heavy lifting on your case. Your lawyer collects the evidence, hires expert witnesses, deals with the procedural rules that are unique to these cases, and prepares your case for trial.
You will not have to pay upfront legal fees to your New Jersey personal injury attorney because we take medical malpractice claims on a contingency fee basis, which means that you do not owe us any legal fees until you win. You can reach out to us today for a free initial consultation.