A medical malpractice lawsuit has the potential to devastate your career. It can negatively impact your reputation, lead to a large judgment against you, and perhaps even have implications for your professional license. That can be stressful to think about but take comfort knowing that there are probably some defense opportunities available to you. Even if they don’t allow you to fully escape liability, they might help you reduce the claim’s ultimate impact.
So, as you prepare to head into your medical malpractice case, you need to fully analyze the evidence in play and anticipate the plaintiff’s arguments. By doing so, you may find that they’ve made mistakes that you can exploit to your advantage.
Highlight these mistakes in your medical malpractice defense
A plaintiff might think that their medical malpractice claim is easily winnable, but their overconfidence could cause them to make costly mistakes. It’s up to you to highlight them for the court and the jury in your case. Only then will you maximize your chances of winning your case and protecting your future. With that in mind, here are some of the errors that you’ll want to be on the lookout for:
- Waiting too long to file a claim: Generally speaking, a medical malpractice plaintiff has 2 years and 6 months within which to file their claim, otherwise they’ll be barred from acting. So, make sure they’re properly citing when the alleged event occurred and consider a motion for summary judgment if the statute of limitations has run.
- Hiring a questionable expert: A lot of the focus in your medical malpractice case is going to fall on the applicable standard of care and whether your actions failed to adhere to that standard. If the plaintiff hires an expert to testify on their behalf, you need fully vet them to see if there’s weaknesses that you can attack. Their background might be questionable, their analysis skewed, or their motivations all too clear. Be as thorough as possible here so that you can diminish the power of this testimony as much as possible.
- Failing to seek follow up care: A lot of medical malpractice victims fail to follow through with what their doctors recommend. If this is the case, then you have room to argue that their injuries aren’t as severe as they claim them to be, which in turn could reduce the amount of liability to which you’re subjected.
- Failing to provide a complete medical history: Before treating a patient, you should have a full understanding of their medical history so that you don’t engage in a course of treatment that puts them at risk. But it’s not your fault if a patient ends up harmed because they failed to share important information with you. So, look back through the plaintiff’s medical records to see if they were open and honest when they initially sought out care.
Stand up to the medical malpractice allegations levied against you
We know that it can be unbearably stressful to navigate the medical malpractice claims process. But by developing a strong defense strategy, you can confidently fight back to protect your interests and your future. If you’d like to learn more about how to do that, then continue to research the various medical malpractice defense options that might be available to you so that you can pick the one that’s best suited to your unique set of circumstances.