Medical malpractice cases are some of the most complicated, challenging litigation in the civil justice system here in New York.

It’s complicated and challenging because of its subject matter, the science and techniques involved in the practice of medicine, which of course is very wide and deep, and it’s complicated because the attorneys who are hired to represent the insurance companies and the defendants are all excellent. And you can imagine why that would be so. The class of people hiring those lawyers, the doctors and the insurance companies are well-educated people themselves – they understand what’s going on, and they wouldn’t take anything less than the best.

Therefore, who’s going to represent the injured plaintiff on the other side? That’s got to be an attorney who’s willing to contend with that kind of lawyer on the other side. And that’s something that my firm and I are prepared to do. A doctor is not responsible to pay for those things that they haven’t caused. And in order to determine whether they’ve caused it or not, we have to look deeply into the facts of the case.

There’s a simple way that I describe medical malpractice, and it is the phrase “avoidance of harm” – that is, that the healthcare professional knew or should have known that there was a way to avoid the harm to the patient, and failed to do it. But the law has a much more technical and specific way that they require a plaintiff to prove malpractice, and that is to show that there was a duty, that there was a breach of duty and that breach of duty caused an injury to the patient, and in a nutshell, that’s what medical malpractice is.

This blog was provided by Marc Chase, one of our experienced Brooklyn medical malpractice lawyers.

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