New Orleans Medical Malpractice Attorney
We trust medical professionals to improve our health when we are injured or ill, not to make it worse. However, doctors, nurses and others who work at hospitals, clinics, emergency rooms, nursing homes and other health care facilities do make mistakes.
When these mistakes are clearly preventable and cause serious injuries, injured patients — or their survivors, in the case of wrongful death — can file medical malpractice lawsuits to recover damages and to hold negligent parties accountable for their actions (or inaction). Our New Orleans medical malpractice lawyers have decades of experience to handle your case with the best possible result.
Fighting Against Doctor And Hospital Negligence
At the Law Office of John W. Redmann, LLC, our New Orleans personal injury attorneys represent clients who have been hurt due to the negligence of medical professionals. We also represent survivors of patients who have died due to medical negligence. Proudly serving New Orleans, Metairie, Gretna, and all of Jefferson Parish!
Our law firm assists clients in situations involving:
- Surgery errors such as failure to remove surgical sponges, perforation of organs and wrong-side operations
- Birth injuries leading to nerve damage, scarring or brain damage
- Transvaginal mesh/surgical mesh injuries causing bleeding, infections, urinary incontinence, tissue damage, organ perforation or prolapse
- Anesthesia errors causing awareness during surgery, brain damage, heart damage or paralysis
- Decubitus ulcers (also known as bedsores) due to neglect at a nursing home or long-term care facility
- Failure to diagnose serious medical conditions such as cancer
- Postoperative negligence, including failing to treat infections or identify post-surgery complications
- Medication errors leading to pain, disability or impairment-related accidents
- Wrongful death resulting from a medical mistake
- Infections caused by equipment at Children’s Hospital of New Orleans
What Is Medical Malpractice?
Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor, nurse, or other health care professional causes injury to a patient through either a negligent act or a failure to uphold the industry’s standard of care. Medical malpractice can occur in a number of different ways and can take many different forms, all leading to an injury to a patient or a worsening of his or her condition.
- Failure to diagnose or test for a condition that a reasonably prudent health care professional would have known to look for under the same circumstances
- Using unsafe medical practices, unsanitary tools, or defective equipment
- Misdiagnosing one condition as another
- Leaving objects inside of a patient after surgery
- Failure to monitor oxygen levels and other vital signs, such as during childbirth
- Improper use of anesthesia
- Performing surgery on the wrong body part
- Amputating the wrong body part
- Giving a patient the wrong medication or administering too high or too little of a dose
While medical malpractice may result out of a number of incidents of negligence or recklessness, the doctor must have been acting in a professional capacity. If you ask your nurse friend for advice at a party, you cannot hold him or her liable for medical malpractice if something goes wrong. If you visit a doctor and suffer from injury due to an act of negligence, you can hold him or her accountable.
Do You Need a New Orleans Medical Malpractice Lawyer?
Handling the aftermath of medical malpractice can be physically, emotionally, and financially difficult. You could struggle with paying for thousands of dollars in medical bills and have to miss out on wages at work due to recovery. You can be in severe pain or fighting a worsening condition. In addition, you could be facing a reduced quality of life or a lifelong disability.The last item on your mind in this situation is filing a medical malpractice lawsuit, but it is also crucial that you take legal action to recover compensation for your injuries. Hiring a medical malpractice attorney from Redmann Law can allow you to focus on recovery and healing while tenaciously pursuing your damages.
Hiring a medical malpractice attorney is an important investment and can provide numerous benefits for your claim.
- You may not have access to the wealth of resources a law firm has. By hiring an attorney, you will have someone on your side who has the ability to perform an in-depth investigation of your claim. In addition, your attorney will have access to a network of experts who can provide testimony on your behalf.
- You may not be familiar with the ins and outs of medical malpractice law, but your attorney will be. Your attorney will know what paperwork to file, what evidence to collect, and what steps you need to take to prepare yourself for negotiation and trial.
- Many medical malpractice cases settle outside of the courtroom through negotiation – and you need strong negotiation skills to obtain the highest possible settlement. Your attorney will have the ability to advocate for your compensation and work towards the optimal settlement amount.
How Do You Prove Medical Malpractice?
In order to receive compensation in your medical malpractice claim, you will need to prove that the doctor or health care professional in question committed an act of negligence. To prove a case of medical malpractice and establish this negligence, you and your attorney will need to satisfy the following four elements.
- First, you will need to prove that the doctor or health care professional owed you a duty of care at the time of the malpractice. You cannot hold a doctor liable if he or she was not acting in a professional capacity. To satisfy this element, you will need to show that you were a patient and received treatment from the at-fault party.
- Next, you will need to prove that the health care professional breached his or her duty of care to you. The at-fault party must have acted in a way that a similarly trained and educated professional would not have. Depending on the nature of your injury, you can prove the breach of duty of care by showing medical records, taking witness testimony, and having experts testify on your behalf.
- Next, you will need to prove that the breach of duty of care directly led to your injuries or illness. Proving this element will depend on the facts of your case. For example, if a doctor failed to diagnose your cancer and the condition progressed as a result, you can prove that the inaccurate diagnosis led to the injury by having a medical expert testify.
- Finally, you will need to prove that the injuries you suffered led to damages you can claim in your settlement. You can claim damages for lost wages, past and future medical expenses, disability accommodations, pain and suffering, and more. Your attorney can help you identify and calculate what damages you can claim.
How Does a New Orleans Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Work?
To hold a medical professional accountable for his or her negligence, you will have to file a claim in Louisiana civil court. As soon as you realize that you may be a victim of medical malpractice, contact Redmann Law to begin the process.
After you hire a New Orleans medical malpractice attorney, we will begin reviewing and investigating your medical records. This act will help us establish a narrative of what happened to you and the damages you can claim, as well as the additional pieces of evidence we will need to collect and the experts we should contact.
The next step would be to contact a medical expert who can provide an opinion on both your condition and whether or not an act of negligence occurred. The expert will examine the facts of your case and consider the at-fault party’s actions against industry standard. He or she will then provide testimony at the trial.
After initial evidence collection, we may contact the at-fault party and set up a negotiation. You may receive a settlement during this negotiation process. If we decide that a negotiation is not possible or the at-fault party does not agree to settlement, we will file the lawsuit in Louisiana civil court.
We will then begin the lawsuit process, where both parties will have the opportunity to investigate each other’s arguments and pieces of evidence. We may meet for another negotiation, which may end in a settlement or proceeding to trial. At the conclusion of the trial, the court will decide whether to award your settlement and how much compensation you will receive.
What Is the Average Medical Malpractice Settlement?
The amount of money you can receive in a medical malpractice lawsuit varies based on the facts of your case. As a result, we cannot give you an estimate on how much you can receive or what the average settlement is. However, certain factors can influence the amount of compensation you may receive.
- The more severe your injuries or illness, the higher the amount will likely be. This is due to higher medical costs, a longer recovery period, and greater emotional damages.
- If the doctor or medical professional acted in an especially negligent or reckless manner, you could collect punitive damages on top of your compensatory damages. Louisiana courts assign punitive damages as a way to punish the at-fault party.
- If the act of malpractice left you with a disability that impacts your day to day life, you may be able to claim a higher amount of emotional damages in addition to the cost of treatment.
- If you have an attorney on your side who can adequately evaluate settlement offers and help you calculate all avenues of compensation you can receive, you will likely receive more compensation than someone without representation.
What Is the Statute of Limitations on Medical Malpractice in Louisiana?
Under Louisiana state law, you must file your medical malpractice lawsuit within a certain timeframe in order for the civil court to hear your case. This deadline is known as the statute of limitations. If you do not file within this timeframe, the court will refuse to hear your claim.
In Louisiana, you have one year from the date of the malpractice to file your lawsuit. If you did not discover the impact of the malpractice until later on, you have one year from the date of discovery to file your claim. It is important to contact Redmann Law as soon as you realize you may have been the victim of medical malpractice to begin the filing process.
Two Decades Of Helping New Orleans’ Injured
For more than 20 years, our lawyers have been recognized as leaders in Louisiana personal injury law. Our New Orleans injury attorneys have tried and/or favorably settled hundreds of cases for their clients. They understand medical terminology and procedures, and they carefully review our clients’ medical records to prove negligence by health care personnel and the institutions that employ them. They can also hire medical experts, rehabilitation specialists, occupational therapists and others who can prove the extent of your injuries and testify on your behalf.
By establishing that negligence occurred or that a pattern of negligence contributed to your injuries, we can wield significant leverage in settlement negotiations and before juries. Our goal is always to obtain the justice and compensation you need to move on with your life.
For more information or to schedule a free initial consultation with a New Orleans medical malpractice attorney, contact us online or call (504) 500-5000 today. Proudly serving Gretna, Metarie, and surrounding areas in Orleans Parish!
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