Litchfield Medical Malpractice Lawyer

Litchfield Medical Malpractice Attorney

Healthcare professionals in the medical field carry a burden of responsibility to provide competent and careful care to all their patients. Unfortunately, injuries can often result when this care is not otherwise provided.

If you suffered any injury at the hands of a healthcare professional who acted with negligence, it is essential that you seek the help of a qualified and skilled medical malpractice attorney. They can work with you to pursue a personal injury claim against the responsible party. The most important goal in a medical malpractice claim is for you to have the opportunity to fully recover. A Litchfield medical malpractice lawyer can help you pursue fair compensation while you focus on healing.

Personal Injury Attorney for Medical Malpractice in Litchfield

The team at Brandenburg & Rees, LLP, understands that every client’s situation and circumstances are unique. We, therefore, take the necessary time to listen to all the details of your case, including the extent to which the injury has caused you to experience personal distress physically, emotionally, and mentally. Then, we can build an appropriate case against the negligent party responsible.

Providing compassionate and responsive legal representation in Litchfield, IL our attorneys have successfully represented many past clients in a wide range of complex medical malpractice cases. As a result, we understand the challenges likely to be faced and can effectively navigate the complexities of medical malpractice claims. Our team can work diligently to achieve the most favorable outcome for your case.

What Is Medical Malpractice?

Medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare professional causes you injury, either through a wrongful act or through negligence. Medical malpractice falls under personal injury law, which allows an individual in Illinois to pursue a claim against a negligent party for damages suffered as a result of their negligence. The purpose of the damages being sought is to offer compensation for recovery as well as pain and suffering.

Like other forms of personal injury, to have a valid claim, you will need to establish the following three factors: 

• Duty of care. First, you must demonstrate that the medical professional, whether they were a doctor, nurse, hospital staff, or other professional, was responsible for providing you with reasonable and competent care.
• Breach of duty (Negligence). Once a duty of care has been established, you must then provide evidence that the healthcare professional deviated from this standard in some way. Negligence occurs when there is a failure to exercise reasonable care or skill in a situation, taking action that falls outside of what another professional in the same situation would likely have done.
• Injury. For a personal injury claim, there must have been an injury that demonstrably resulted from the negligence in question. “Injury” can refer to any harm, whether physical, emotional, or financial, that directly resulted from the negligence of the healthcare provider.

Although medical malpractice falls under personal injury law, filing for medical negligence is a very different process from filing any other type of personal injury claim. Medical malpractice cases are often complex, requiring detailed evidence and qualifying witness testimony to effectively demonstrate negligence.

For this reason, partnering with a qualified and skilled Litchfield medical malpractice attorney is vital, as the help of the right lawyer can dramatically impact the outcome of your claim.

What Makes Medical Malpractice Claims So Difficult?

In some cases, the personal injury sustained may seem easy and straightforward to demonstrate. However, proving that medical negligence directly led to the injury will not be quite as straightforward. In fact, most medical malpractice claims are complicated matters that are extremely difficult to prove, requiring comprehensive documentation and evidence-gathering to argue a case effectively. There are many factors particular to medical claims that add to their complexity: 

• Nature of health care. Medical standards involve intricate procedures that cover a wide range of specialty knowledge. Most individuals have difficulty understanding these standards without medical training. For this reason, demonstrating definitive proof that a healthcare professional acted outside of any established standard of care requires third-party testimony from a medical professional in a related position or field.
• Threshold for mistakes. Despite the unfortunate consequences that can result from a mistake made by a medical professional, healthcare providers are not legally expected to perform their duties with absolute perfection. In fact, doctors are allowed to make mistakes. To prove that the injury caused was a matter of medical malpractice, you must be able to effectively establish the presence of negligence on the part of the healthcare provider.
• Strict deadlines. Medical malpractice claims operate under very strict timelines, within which a claim must be filed. If the statute of limitations has been exceeded, courts will not consider the claim, regardless of its merits or validity. With very little exception, a claimant has two years from the date on which the injury occurred to file a claim. In cases where the symptoms of an injury do not immediately manifest, then the statute of limitations will begin from the date when the injury could have reasonably become known.

These factors refer to the considerations that make medical malpractice claims difficult to get started. If you are able to get a medical malpractice claim going, there are further factors and considerations that make successfully arguing your case extremely difficult.

If you decide to pursue a personal injury claim against medical malpractice, you need the help of an experienced lawyer who can guide you through the steps, gather the appropriate documentation, and fight diligently on your behalf.

How Can a Medical Malpractice Lawyer Help My Case?

It is highly likely that the doctor or healthcare professional who provided you with the care in question is protected by their own legal defense team. Medical professionals defend against malpractice claims every day and win most cases. To overcome a strong defense team, you will need to secure an even stronger law firm, fighting on your behalf, to effectively argue that the instance of medical negligence took place.

Litchfield medical malpractice lawyers with a history of successful cases are able to provide the essential experience and skill to properly navigate the legal requirements specific to medical negligence. They can ensure that your claim is fully compliant with all deadlines and necessary documentation. From the outset, your lawyer can assess the details of your case, determining the merit of your claims. Because most personal injury attorneys work on a contingency-fee basis, your lawyer only takes on a case that they already believe they can win.

From there, your legal team can utilize the extensive network of medical professionals and consultants with whom they have established relationships to begin building a case to establish negligence. Your attorney understands the kinds of damages that result from medical negligence and can work diligently to maximize the appropriate compensation you receive.

If you’ve suffered a personal injury as a result of medical negligence, your primary concern should be recovery. Pursuing damages in a medical malpractice claim is a taxing and emotionally draining process. Let a knowledgeable attorney reduce your stress by working on your behalf to recover all appropriate damages.

What Damages Can I Claim in My Medical Malpractice Case?

The goal of pursuing any personal injury claim is to restore the claimant, as much as possible, to the state of wholeness experienced prior to the negligent care. In a successful claim, you can expect to receive compensation covering the total value of both economic and non-economic losses. These can include, but are not limited to:

• Medical bills. As these are some of the damages that are most easily quantified, your claim can seek to recover expenses for all past and future medical treatments related to all the injuries caused by the malpractice. In cases where the injury requires additional long-term care, you are entitled to recover the compensation that is necessary to receive that care.
• Pain and suffering. Often composing the bulk of recovered damages, a successful personal injury claim entitles you to compensation for the physical, emotional, and mental distress that results from living with the injuries you’ve sustained.
• Lost income. Sustaining a serious injury can lead directly to lost income resulting from time spent in recovery. Additionally, many injuries may affect future earnings capacity, especially in cases of permanent injury. As a claimant, you are entitled to recover all estimated costs stemming from lost income.
• Other damages. Depending on the details of your case, you may be entitled to additional damages, such as compensation for disfigurement or scarring, loss of consortium if the injury negatively affected a relationship, or punitive damages against the responsible party for cases of gross negligence.

Due to the difficulty of quantifying many of the damages sustained as a result of the injury, your case will be highly dependent on the quality of the argument made against the defendant.

Medical Malpractice Representation You Can Trust

If you sustained injuries as the result of negligence on the part of a medical professional who owed you a duty of care, contact one of our Litchfield personal injury lawyers immediately. Our team at Brandenburg & Rees, LLP, has a successful history of handling complex medical malpractice cases, securing just compensation on behalf of our clients. Let one of our attorneys take on the details of your case so that you can begin the process of focusing on your recovery. Get started today by contacting our office.