Medical Malpractice
What is Medical Malpractice?
Doctors, nurses, physical therapists, nurse practitioners, and other healthcare providers in Georgia are required to be licensed and follow professional standards known as the standard of care. This standard refers to what a competent medical professional should—or should not—do in a given situation when treating a patient. It’s not something you can look up in a manual, but rather a set of generally accepted practices recognized within the medical community.
Importantly, not every poor outcome is considered malpractice. If a medical professional exercises reasonable judgment within the range of accepted treatment options, that’s not a violation. However, if a provider acts outside those accepted standards—and their actions result in harm—that may constitute medical malpractice.
How to File A Claim
In Georgia, you must file a lawsuit with an attached affidavit of a medical professional who has equal or better qualifications than the medical professional you are suing. That affidavit is very lengthy, and must contain the qualifications of that medical professional-such as education, licenses, and specialty training, the certified copy of medical records that they have reviewed, the key facts that they gathered from those certified records, the standard of care applicable to those facts and where that standard of care comes from, how the standard of care was violated, and the damages resulting from same. If you do not file an affidavit of a qualified medical practitioner with your lawsuit, your claim is generally barred forever.
Let Owens & Mulherin Attorneys Fight For Your Medical Malpractice Claim
Wilbur Owens and Joseph Mulherin started their careers defending insurance companies and corporations, including defending hospitals and medical practitioners in Savannah and the surrounding area. Since 2001, we have handled voluminous medical malpractice claims, consisting of everything from putting catheters in the wrong blood vessel, operating on the wrong level of the spine, failing to follow up with infections to the point that clients become septic and are severely injured or die, etc. We have a number of nurses and doctors willing to review cases for us and are happy to discuss your claim.
The beginning of a medical malpractice claim involves us looking at your medical records. If we believe that you have a claim, we will send your case to an expert. We would then request a certified copy of your medical records. Certified medical records are medical records certified by the medical practitioner or their practice as being true and correct copies of the records. Experts have to rely upon certified medical records, which means that they are relying upon the real records, which have not been altered or are missing. It is very rare for a medical malpractice claim to settle without litigation, but we will make a demand on your behalf if you have reached maximum medical improvement before Georgia’s two-year statute of limitations and in plenty of time for us to get an affidavit and make the demand. This will allow the insurance carrier, for the medical practitioner, to understand the severity of your claim and set monetary reserves for their insurance policy. Litigation is a process where we file a lawsuit, serve the other party or parties, exchange written discovery (interrogatories or questions and requests for production of documents between the parties), take depositions of parties, treating physicians, and experts, etc. and try your case if needed.
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Don’t let the insurance company profit at your expense. Let Owens & Mulherin fight for the maximum compensation for your injury claim. Consultations are free and scheduled at your convenience.