Anne Arundel Medical Malpractice Damages

Following an incident of medical malpractice, you might be wondering what your legal options are. One step you can take to hold the negligent medical professional(s) responsible, is file a medical malpractice claim and pursue Anne Arundel medical malpractice damages. There are three types of damages, economic, non-economic, and punitive damages. Damages can compensate you for medical costs, hardship, and more. If you are interested in pursuing medical malpractice damages, speak with a hardworking medical malpractice lawyer that could advocate for you.

Defining Economic Damages in Medical Malpractice Cases

As defined by Anne Arundel law, economic damages are any expenses that are actually quantifiable, such as medical expenses, a person’s past lost wages, future lost wages, any future medical expenses, and any loss of services. These Anne Arundel medical malpractice damages can be quantified by a life care expert. A loss of services can include chores done around the house that a person is no longer able to do as a result of their injuries, and this work can be quantified into a monetary number. Any damage that can be quantified in this manner is considered economic damage.

Economic damages are calculated based on lost income, lost earning capacity, medical expenses, any future medical expenses  or future care, etc. All of those can be bought and are quantifiable in a dollar amount, and that is how they are calculated.

What Are Non-Economic Damages?

As defined by Anne Arundel law, non-economic damages are a person’s conscious pain and suffering, their loss of consortium, their loss of companionship, their grief if a family member has died, their emotional distress damages, and other Anne Arundel medical malpractice damages that are difficult to quantify. It is difficult to affix a monetary value to non-economic damages.

In Anne Arundel, if a person has died, the surviving person or estate files a survival action on behalf of the person who passed away as a result of malpractice. There is a non-economic damage cap, which is $850,000 and tends to increase every year. If the person has more than one wrongful death beneficiary, the cap will be set at $1.2 million for the spouse and/or the children. A person can receive $1.2 million for the wrongful death and $815,000 through the survival action, but if a person has survived malpractice, they will have a cap for their pain and suffering at $815,000. This cap is used to negotiate the value of non-economic damages.

Caps on Economic and Non-Economic Damages

In medical malpractice cases, there is no cap on economic damages. Non-economic damages include the conscious pain and suffering of a person, their loss of companionship, the grief that a surviving person will feel, and the emotional distress damages that they may have, and those kinds of damages are capped. For a person who has survived, their conscious pain and suffering is capped at $815,000.

For a survival action brought by the estate on behalf of the person who has passed away as a victim of medical malpractice, the cap for non-economic damages is also $815,000. If a person has a spouse, parent, and/or child who has brought a wrongful death claim against the doctor who caused the malpractice and they are the only surviving beneficiary, then they also have a $815,000 cap. If there is more than one beneficiary, such as a spouse and children, the cap on the economic damages for the wrongful death beneficiaries is $1.2 million in Anne Arundel County.

Why Do Caps on Damages in Medical Malpractice Cases Exist?

There are reasons why these caps for damages exist. In the early ’90’s, there was an issue with respect to medical malpractice insurance carriers charging astronomical premiums that caused the price of healthcare to go up. Many doctors were not able to afford premiums and therefore either were not purchasing malpractice insurance or were no longer practicing those services.

Medical facilities and medical insurance carriers were going out of business because they could not pay for high verdicts in these cases or could not pay for the premiums, and the system was starting to fall apart. Caps on non-economic damages exist to control the money that is paid out so that medical facilities and doctors continue to practice and continue to provide good healthcare.

How an Anne Arundel Medical Malpractice Attorney Could Help Pursue Damages

In Anne Arundel County, there are no caps on economic damages. Attorneys can use economists and life care planning experts to prove the dollar figure on loss of services, loss of earning capacity, past lost wages, future lost wages, future medical care, and other economic or quantifiable Anne Arundel medical malpractice damages. This can be a way to circumvent the cap on non-economic damages, as the economic damages have no cap and can be quite high. If you have been injured due to a doctor’s negligence, consult a capable medical malpractice lawyer that could help you recover the damages that you deserve.