Medical malpractice is when a physician acted negligently when providing care, and that negligence caused an injury.
You can only collect damages that you can prove. Determining the long-term costs of injuries is a complex process that demands not only a knowledge of the law but how it has been applied to prior injuries.
This is the kind of knowledge that your Florida medical malpractice lawyer uses to handle your case every step of the way, from claim to compensation.
Reach out to one of our attorneys at Lytal, Reiter, Smith, Ivey, & Fronrath. We can help file a medical malpractice claim on behalf of your child. Call (561) 655-1990 today.
Read on to learn more about the types of damages available and the evidence you’ll need to support them.
1. Keep All of Your Child’s Medical Records and Documents
You can only collect damages that you can prove with evidence, so it’s essential that you maintain copies of your child’s medical records and documents, especially those concerning the incident that caused an injury.
Once an injury has occurred, the hospital might not be as cooperative as you would prefer in providing this information.
Hospitals are for-profit institutions, as are their insurance companies which will generally be responsible for covering your damages. They make more profit by minimizing costs, and covering the damages associated with medical malpractice are viewed as costs.
2. Keep a Journal Detailing Your Child’s Recovery
By the time you bring a claim or lawsuit to collect damages for your child’s injury, you might not remember if recovery took two or four months, or what the symptoms of the injury were.
A journal helps you maintain important evidence to maximize your compensation.
3. Don’t Let Your Child Speak to the Insurance Company
The insurance company’s goal is to deny your claim, and if you have sufficient evidence that it cannot be denied, they will look for evidence to pay less.
Speaking with the insurance company is risky, as you might not know what the purpose of the conversation is. You could share information that seems harmless, but could in fact damage your ability to collect the damages you are entitled to for your child’s injury. You should also be careful about letting your child answer the phone at home. If your child answers the insurance company’s call, they may inadvertently say something that refutes their case.
Insurance companies have full-time teams of claim analysts and attorneys working to deny whichever claims they can while paying as little as possible on those they cannot deny. Having a Florida medical malpractice lawyer to help you file a medical malpractice claim on behalf of your child will help to even the playing field and ensure the insurance company does not take advantage of you.
Your Florida medical malpractice attorney steps into your shoes and takes over all communications and negotiations with the insurance company.
4. Stay Off Social Media
Social media can be a great source of entertainment and communication, but if you have a claim or case pending, it can also be a source of evidence that the insurance companies can use against you.
If your child has been injured and you have an outing with your family where you stage a photo where it looks as though your child is jumping despite their injury, someone may be watching.
The insurance companies and their claim analysts might use it against you as proof that your child is not injured.
5. Keep a Close Eye on the Statute of Limitations
The statute of limitations is the expiration period for any claim or lawsuit that you can bring to collect damages related to an accident or incident that causes injury.
With medical malpractice claims, this will generally be from the time of the procedure, but cases involving children are often quite different. In Florida, childrens’ medical malpractice claims can be extended up to the child’s eighth birthday.
If a claim is not filed within the statute of limitations, it expires and you lose your right to collect damages related to the medical malpractice injury. When injuries lead to a lifetime of medical bills, and even lost wages, this could mean that you, your family, and your injured child have to pay the costs associated with their medical malpractice injury.
Collecting your damages from the party that is liable for them is important to ensure that your family isn’t left having to cover the associated bills.
Who may be liable for my child’s injury?
When your child has been injured by a negligent act, you can bring a claim on their behalf to collect damages.
A negligent act is when someone is irresponsible or breaks some duty or law they are obligated to follow, causing harm to someone else. In terms of the medical profession, this includes meeting the standard of care of the procedure and not making mistakes.
Medical professionals have an obligation to conduct procedures in line with the standard of care that other professionals in their position would provide.
When the procedure does not meet this standard of care, the physician could be liable for medical malpractice. Given that no doctor is perfect and every procedure has risks, medical professionals and hospitals carry insurance to cover medical malpractice.
You do not automatically receive damages, but rather must collect evidence then file a claim with the appropriate insurance company to the appropriate people and have it approved.
Your attorney helps you every step of the way, from accurately calculating your damages to collecting them.
Helping Your Child Have a Healthy Future
The sooner you have an attorney on your claim, the sooner you can focus on helping your child recover from their injuries.
Reach out today to schedule a consultation with your Florida medical malpractice lawyer from Lytal, Reiter, Smith, Ivey, & Fronrath. We are ready to file a medical malpractice claim on behalf of your child, so call (561) 655-1990 now.
