Evidence in DC Medical Malpractice Cases 

Evidence in DC medical malpractice cases is important to understand. There are cases where there is a misdiagnosis or there are surgical errors that do have defenses. For example, when there is a failure to diagnose a cancer case, one of the arguments is that there is no causation because that person would have died anyway.

Often times, the medicine supports a defense like that. The cases that settle are the ones where there is not a defense. The ones that go to trial usually have some defensive ability. This can be confusing, so call a qualified attorney who can guide you through the process.

Types of Evidence in DC Medical Malpractice Cases

There are two kinds of evidence: medical evidence and factual evidence. In a medical malpractice case, the person’s physical condition is identified through medical evidence. Factual evidence is what happened during the case and information about the individual bringing the lawsuit. The lawyer needs to prove the person’s medical case through the medical evidence and uses the factual evidence to win the hearts and minds of jurors.

Gathering Evidence Before Filing a Claim

When a person thinks they have been affected by medical malpractice, the best thing that they can do is get a copy of their medical records. The can give their attorney authorization to obtain the medical records. Their lawyer can pull the medical records and go through them to see if there is something that looks an occurrence of malpractice. The next step is that they send the medical records to an expert to review them and see if there is malpractice.

What an Attorney Looks For

For evidence in a DC medical malpractice case, an attorney looks to see if there are surgical or misdiagnosis errors. When looking at diagnosis errors, the attorney looks at what the doctors knew and when they knew it. When there are surgical errors, the attorney looks at the procedures used during the preparation for surgery. If a person goes in for a right knee surgery and the doctor opens up that person’s left knee, that is pretty obvious. In most big cases, an attorney looks for what the doctor knew, when they knew it, how they went about it, and how they wrote their notes. When an attorney thinks there is something wrong, they talk to an expert.

An attorney must get the medical records, and that is not that easy to do. A person sends a request to a hospital and it can take months to process the request. The person must pay for every page in the record. Some hospital records are 2,000 pages long. Medical records can cost up to $1,500. When the attorney has the medical records, there is an additional expense for an expert to review them. The investigation takes months of time and thousands of dollars.

Length of Time Collecting Evidence

The length of time to collect the evidence depends on the type of DC medical malpractice case. In a case where a doctor left something inside a person, it is just not that long. In a case of a misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose cancer, there could be about four years of medical records from 10 different facilities. It could take upwards of a year to do a proper investigation in that case.

Medical Experts as a Witness

Before presenting a medical malpractice case in court, the attorney makes sure they have medical expert witnesses who can support their claim. The attorney does everything possible to get the expert what they need to support the claim. Some cases involve multiple experts. The most important thing is to get the expert to sign off on the claim. Once the attorney has an expert and has all the medical records, they are ready to file a suit.

Important Information to Communicate to the Lawyer

The most important thing a person needs to know in regards to the evidence gathering process is that they must be honest with their lawyer. If there is an important piece of evidence that their lawyer needs to know, the person needs to tell them about it. If a person files a lawsuit without being completely honest about the case with their lawyer, the other side will do an intensive investigation and will uncover everything.

Lawyers need to be informed because they can work with whatever complications there might be. If one’s lawyers are not informed, the lawyers have to deal with the situation without having the time to properly prepare to address it. The best thing to know about a person’s case is that a person knows more about themselves than their lawyers know. The more honest and candid a person is with their lawyers, the better it is to win the case. For more information on evidence in a DC medical malpractice case, get in touch with a professional attorney today.