Houston Medical Malpractice Attorney

Houston Malpractice Lawyer Michael Grossman on Pursuing a Medical Malpractice Claim in Houston, Texas

• Liability in Medical Malpractice Cases
• Proving Medical Malpractice Occurred
• Tort Reform and Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
• Why Should I Hire an Attorney?

Suffering a further injury or illness, or losing a loved one, due to the possible medical malpractice of a negligent medical professional will leave an aggrieved party with a host of questions that will not have quick answers.

• Who caused this?
• How did this injury happen?
• How can I hold the responsible parties accountable?
• How will I be able to pay for further medical help?
• Why can’t I get answers from my doctor?
• Do I need to pursue legal remedy?
• What are my legal options?
• Do I need to hire a Houston medical malpractice attorney?

These kinds of questions are common to a vast majority of people that have been affected by medical malpractice. However, answers to these questions are seldom forthcoming from the liable medical professional or medical establishment. As such, seeking the help of an experienced Houston medical malpractice attorney can assist you in getting answers to these questions so that you can know whether or not a medical professional’s negligence caused or contributed to your further injury or illness or your loved one’s death. The Texas medical malpractice attorneys at Grossman Law Offices offer the following information to help you understand your legal rights in seeking justice and seeking compensation through a Houston medical malpractice lawsuit.

Liability in Medical Malpractice Cases in Houston

More often than not, an injured victim or a bereaved family member first wants to know who caused their injury or loss. While many people connect a doctor to the words medical malpractice, other types of medical professionals can also exercise negligent care of their patients, which could result in a medical malpractice lawsuit. For example, nurses, anesthesiologists, surgeons, obstetricians, pharmacists, dentists, dental assistants, dental technicians, nursing home care-providers, chiropractors, and many other types of medical professionals may be sued through a medical malpractice lawsuit if their negligent behavior caused or contributed to an injury or death as a result of negligent medical care. In some instances, multiple parties may have all be partially liable for an accident in which each party would be a unique defendant in a medical malpractice lawsuit in Houston. In addition to the parties that were directly or indirectly responsible for causing you further harm, an insurance agency will likely also be involved, since large-sum insurance policies are often held by doctors, medical professionals, and medical establishment.

Assessing liability in a medical malpractice case can be quite a challenging issue due to the highly technical nature of the accident. A singe doctor’s moment of inattention may have caused an injury, or a series of events, created through the negligence of multiple parties, may have caused you to experience further harm. As such, it often requires the work of a medical expert to pore over your medical records in order to ascertain when and where the standard of care broke down, and who the liable parties may have been who contributed to your injury. With many years of experience in medical malpractice cases, our Houston medical malpractice law firm has access to medical experts that can help properly assess liability in a medical malpractice lawsuit so that the negligent parties can be held accountable for their actions.

Proving Medical Malpractice Occurred

It is the responsibility of the injured victim or bereaved family member to pursue legal action against a negligent party or parties. An aggrieved party cannot wait for compensation to be offered to them; a defendant is only required to award compensation to a plaintiff if the plaintiff can prove that the defendant was a contributing factor to their injury or loss. Proving such guilt is accomplished through a medical malpractice personal injury lawsuit or a medical malpractice wrongful death lawsuit. In either instance, the plaintiff bears the burden of proof which means that their legal representation must be able to prove that the following aspects existed in connection to the medical malpractice case:

The victim was owed a duty of care. Medical professionals owe a high standard of care to their patients as a result of their specialized training and the delicate nature of their respective professions. The standard of care for a medical professional is based on their peers’ standard of care for their patients. In other words, a general practitioner must offer a duty of care to his patients that is equal to the duty of care other general practitioners owe to their patients. In most medical malpractice lawsuits, proving that a standard of care was owed is fairly straightforward.

The liable medical professional violated that duty of care. In order to prove that medical malpractice occurred, an aggrieved party’s legal representation must show how the medical professional violated the standard of care they owed to their patient. For example, if a physician prescribes a drug to a person with diabetes and the drug is known to cause further harm to those with diabetes, a violation of care has likely occurred. Proving that a violation has occurred is not as simple as proving that a legal duty was owed. Often, medical professionals and their peers may provide alternative reasons as to why a doctor may have acted in a certain way, or they may point to medical literature that could possibly substantiate their claim. In other words, some doctors may help other doctors out of liability since they, as peers in the same field of medicine, understand the risks involved in practicing medicine. Consequently, it can sometimes be challenging to properly identify the way or ways in which a medical professional may have violated their legal duty owed to their patient. However, this is where expert medical witnesses are vital to the possible successful outcome of a medical malpractice lawsuit. These experts can attest to whether or not a standard of care offered by a liable doctor was commensurate with the standard of care for that doctor’s community of peers. Houston medical malpractice attorney Michael Grossman and his team at Grossman Law Offices can help find relevant medical experts who can assist you in determining if a standard of care was less not met by a liable medical professional.

The violation resulted in a victim’s injury or death. Once a violation has been proven to have occurred, it must also be shown how that violation caused a victim to sustain an injury or illness, or succumb to death. While such an injury may be readily apparent, an insurance agency and a defense attorney will both require ample evidence that a medical professional’s negligent behavior caused or contributed to the injury or loss of life. Again, the testimony of a relevant medical expert can prove to be the foundational aspect of linking a doctor’s malpractice to a sustained injury or death.

The injury or death resulted in the aggrieved party suffering some type of financial loss. These financial losses are known as damages in the legal realm, and the stated purpose of a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit is for the victim to be able to be compensated by the defendant for the financial losses the victim has incurred due to the defendant’s negligent behavior. Damages can be sought for issues such as medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering in the event of a personal injury. If a loved one has died, damages can be sought for funeral expenses, pain and suffering of the bereaved family members, and other issues related to a wrongful death. Properly calculating incurred damages is vitally important to a medical malpractice lawsuit since such compensation for such damages can greatly assist a victim with both their past and future medical bills. With 20 years of experience in proving up damages so that our clients can stand to be fully and fairly compensated, Houston medical malpractice attorney Michael Grossman will make sure that all damages are taken into consideration before requesting compensation from the liable party or parties.

Tort Reform and Medical Malpractice Lawsuits in Houston, Texas

Recent tort reform was enacted in Texas in order to reduce the amount of frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits that were tying up the courts and tying up the hands of competent medical professionals. However, this medical malpractice tort reform also worked to make it somewhat more challenging for legitimate medical malpractice lawsuits to be brought against negligent medical professionals. In addition to the challenges presented by the tort reform, caps on recoverable damages were also set in place, effectively limiting the total amount of compensation an aggrieved party could stand to be awarded from a negligent doctor or medical establishment. However, in these instances, our firm will be sure to investigate in order to see if any other liable parties may have been involved, who may not have a limit placed on the amount of damages that can be recovered from them.

Medical malpractice cases are often some of the most challenging types of civil lawsuits in Texas. Coupled with recent tort reform, many attorneys seldom desire to tackle such cases due to the amount of work that is often involved in helping their clients through to a successful outcome. However, we desire to assist our clients so that they can be properly compensated for their injury or loss, and we don’t mind doing the hard work that can sometimes be involved in medical malpractice lawsuits. With years of prior experience, we’re ready and able to help you seek justice against a negligent medical professional.

Medical Insurance Companies

Insurers will likely be involved in medical malpractice lawsuits as well. Insurance adjusters sent by these insurers to work on medical malpractice claims will likely be highly-experienced and well-trained at what they do. Their goal will likely be to prevent as much fiscal damage from being done to their company’s bottom-line as possible, regardless of an aggrieved party’s need for compensation. They will attempt to find any way possible in order to exonerate a medical professional from even a small amount of liability for an accident causing injury or death. With each degree of liability that can be lessened, possible compensation can also be diminished in kind. When hired, Houston medical malpractice lawyer Michael Grossman and his team at Grossman Law Offices will become the entity that solely deals with the insurer so that a victim does not have to. Since we’re familiar with their methods, they seldom attempt certain tactics that they may be prone to using against plaintiffs by themselves.

What if I Signed an Informed Consent Document?

A medical malpractice lawsuit can be pursued even if a victim has signed an informed consent document. Such a document is often given to a patient before undergoing some type of medical procedure. The informed consent document ensures that a patient understands the procedure, the risks of the procedure, the risks of not having the procedure performed, and alternatives to the procedure. A patient must sign-off on this document in order to undergo the procedure. In some instances, an informed consent document may also include legal language that can suggest a waiver of liability should something go awry during the procedure. Doctors and medical professionals may then use an informed consent document as a way out of liability for medical malpractice. However, the possible success of a medical malpractice lawsuit does not rely on such a document, but on the actual circumstances of the medical procedure itself. This is a challenging issue in medical malpractice cases, but our attorneys can likely help you in a medical malpractice case, even if such a document was signed.

Why Should I Hire a Houston Medical Malpractice Lawyer?

Medical malpractice lawsuits are challenging and complex and laden with issues that are often beyond the knowledge level of most people, simply due to the highly technical nature of these types of civil lawsuits. Self-representing plaintiffs seldom if ever see compensation as a result of a successful medical malpractice lawsuit. In addition to having wide legal knowledge, access to medical experts, and years of proven experience, a medical malpractice attorney that can capably assist an injured victim or a bereaved family will likely also have a certain reputation amongst the insurers and defense attorneys that he’s faced before. As Houston Texas medical malpractice attorney Michael Grossman has faced nearly every major insurer in the country, they are well aware of his abilities to defend his clients’ rights at all times.

Additionally, hiring a Houston malpractice attorney allows you to focus on recovery while we take care of all of the following work. We will:

• Be the entity that deals with the insurer on your behalf.
• Fill out your paperwork, answer phone calls regarding your case, and take care of any correspondence that may be necessary to proceed with your case.
• Faithfully calculate your total amount of incurred damages, including past and future medical bills, so that you can stand to be fairly compensated.
• Locate a relevant medical expert that can testify on your behalf.
• Help you locate and receive proper medical attention.
• Investigate your claim to the fullest extent of our abilities.
• Pressure the defense to settle out-of-court, meaning that you could stand to receive fair compensation without having to endure the time and cost associated with a trial case.
• Aggressively defend your rights when necessary if a trial case is required.

If you have reason to believe that medical malpractice may have contributed to your further injury or illness, or the loss of a loved one, contact Houston, TX medical malpractice attorney Michael Grossman at Grossman Law Offices. We have a 24-hour toll-free number at 1-855-392-0000 that you can call in order to obtain free legal advice where we can help apprise you of your possible legal options so that you can seek compensation for your injury or loss against the negligent medical professionals responsible for causing you such harm.