Medical Malpractice. It’s All We Do.
Medical malpractice (also called medical negligence) is a claim based on negligent care by a health care provider. If a provider acts below the standard of care for his/her profession, and a patient is harmed, the provider can be held liable for the damages suffered by the patient. The standard of care is that of a reasonably prudent provider in the same or similar circumstances.
Expert medical testimony is almost always necessary to establish the standard of care.
CMG Law only handles medical malpractice cases
Most medical malpractice claims are complex, expensive, and risky, and many lawyers do not handle them. CMG Law, which was founded in 1980, limits its practice to such cases. The CMG Law team has decades of experience in prosecuting medical malpractice cases. Our lawyers have successfully resolved cases ranging from birth injuries to wrongful death. Case reports of some of the cases we have handled over the years can be seen in the “Cases We Handle” part of this website.
CMG Law has the ability to present your best case
Medical malpractice cases require expert medical testimony, often from different experts on negligence, causation, and damages. CMG Law works with top medical experts throughout the country to present the evidence needed to win. We have the resources to ensure that your claim will have the best chance of being resolved in your favor.
Client communication is important
CMG Law knows that this is your case and you have the right to make decisions about resolution. Our team of experienced attorneys and staff regularly communicate with our clients to ensure that they have the information to make the best decisions about their case.
EVALUATION OF A MEDICAL MALPRACTICE CLAIM
1. PRELIMINARY EVALUATION
An attorney in our office will make a preliminary assessment of your claim, based on information provided to us by you or a referring attorney. Often, for various reasons, a decision is made at this stage not to proceed further with a claim. Those reasons may include a potential conflict of interest -- for example where the potential defendant in your claim is a doctor for other clients or is an expert witness in one of our cases -- or the provable damages are not extensive enough to justify the risks and costs of pursuing the claim.
2. IN-HOUSE RECORDS REVIEW & RESEARCH
Establishing liability or fault depends, in most cases, on what is in the medical records. In the second stage of the evaluation process, we will send for copies of the relevant records. It may take as long as four weeks or more to obtain them.
The initial review of the records will be done by an attorney in our office. Depending on the volume of records and the complexity of the case, the review may take several weeks to complete. One of our attorneys specializes in such reviews and prepares extensive chronologies of the care in question.
3. REVIEW BY EXPERTS
The next stage is evaluation by an appropriate expert. Usually, the issue of negligence must be evaluated by someone in the same field, i.e., a surgeon for surgical negligence, a nurse for nursing negligence, etc.
Sometimes, issues other than that of negligence must also be evaluated by an expert. For example, a different expert may be used to evaluate causation (whether and to what extent the negligence caused injury to the patient) or the extent of damages.
We work with many medical experts who have evaluated potential claims and testified in our cases, but in some instances we need to locate a particular expert with whom we have not previously worked on a case. This may involve contacting experts from different areas of the country who have written articles about the particular medical subject.
We determine on the basis of our review process whether to proceed with the claim. Reasons for not proceeding may be problems in proving negligence, causation, or damages. Because of the complexity and cost of handling medical negligence cases, there must be a weighing of the risks and costs of pursuing a claim against the potential recovery from a settlement or verdict.
4. REPRESENTATION AGREEMENT
If the initial review indicates that this is a case which we would want to pursue, we will enter into a formal attorney-client relationship under the terms in a written retainer agreement providing for a contingent (percentage) fee. There is no fee if no recovery, and we advance the costs of the lawsuit (to be reimbursed at the time of resolution).
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE LAWSUIT
1. THE CLAIM PROCESS
In the case of some insurance companies, we will notify them of the claim and provide an opportunity for their evaluation before we file a lawsuit . For most insurance companies however, it is our experience that they will seldom settle claims without litigation and, in those cases, we may simply file the lawsuit.
2. THE LAWSUIT
Commencing a lawsuit involves filing a "complaint" in the appropriate court, and then serving the complaint and a summons on the defendant. Once this occurs, the defendant has thirty days in which to "appear" in the action through an attorney, usually somebody hired by their liability insurance carrier.
This only starts the process. Between this time and the trial, both sides will engage in an extensive, formal "discovery" process under the court rules. That means written questions ("interrogatories") can be sent to each side to be answered under oath. Depositions (asking questions under oath with a court reporter recording the questions and answers) can be taken of the parties and their witnesses. As each side designates which experts they intend to use at trial, depositions of those experts will be taken.
During the discovery process, the facts of a claim often become more clear and in some instances may be different than they seemed to be when the claim was first evaluated.
During this process, and indeed at any time before or during trial, settlement of a claim may occur. It is not unusual for the parties to have a better understanding of the case after depositions of the experts have been taken, and often that is the point when a settlement is most likely. Often, that is when mediation occurs. Mediation is a non-binding process in which both parties and their attorneys meet with a neutral third person who assists in trying to reach a settlement.
3. COSTS OF THE LITIGATION PROCESS
The costs of handling medical negligence cases are often substantial. Much of the cost involves the need to have expert medical testimony on issues of negligence, causation and damages. Each expert will charge for his/her time in evaluating the issues, meeting with the plaintiff's attorney, preparing for and giving a deposition, and for testifying at trial. The more complex a case, the more experts are usually needed, and thus the greater the cost.
In almost all cases, we advance the costs of litigation and look for reimbursement of those costs when the case is resolved.
