Important Message!
A Medical Malpractice Lawyer Told Me I Don’t Have a Case
Have Your Medical Records with You
If you have not already done so, request copies of all your pertinent medical records. If you saw a lawyer without them, wait until they arrive in the mail. Once they arrive, review them, place tags on pertinent pages, highlight where needed, organize into a presentation-type packet, and make several copies. While it may be easier to find a lawyer in your city, don’t be afraid to look elsewhere in the state or, for that matter, the country.
Schedule Free Consultation Appointments
You’ve had a few appointments that didn’t grab the interest of the medical malpractice lawyers. Make some additional free consultation appointments with a few more, and go in armed with your medical records. Make sure you can state your case clearly and precisely, and that you can reference documentation to substantiate your claims. To a lawyer, time is money. If you can’t make the free half-hour generate income for him, he won’t be interested.
Do I Need to Find a Medical Malpractice Lawyer?
If you have a real medical malpractice case, you need a medical malpractice lawyer. You don’t call an electrician to fix your plumbing, so why would you hire a lawyer that didn’t specialize in medical malpractice? There are specialists with medical and legal degrees; these professionals may be of help to you, but it takes some investigation to find them. Don’t hesitate to send a cover letter and a copy of your medical record packet, complete with highlights and tags, out of the area to lawyers you may find in your research. Explain how you found them and be very short and detailed about what you consider to be medical malpractice.
What If a Medical Malpractice Lawyer Won’t Take My Case?
Unfortunately, that’s a very common occurrence. There are some lawyers that only handle personal injury, others that only handle defective equipment, etc. If you are convinced you have a case and you have all the time in the world to pursue it, continue to reach out for help. There are reality TV shows, news magazines, and newspapers that may be interested in the story. However, there is also a point at which you must survey your damages and decide to move forward with your life.
Move on With Your Life
While winning the case may be a mission for you, do not become consumed with it. Whether or not someone will take your case, and whether or not the healthcare facility or provider claims to be innocent of charges, you cannot have false expectations. Expecting the hospital to issue an apology and a check is unrealistic. Expecting the hospital to question that state of your mental health, and the pre-existence of several issues, is more likely. Even if a medical malpractice lawyer agrees that you have a possible cause of action, he may not feel you will get anything near what you are looking to recover. However, since he or she will get a portion (usually a third) of the award, it may be in his/her interest to pursue it.
On April 1, 1984, Donna Sabia went into labor expecting twins. But one of the babies arrived stillborn, while the other–Anthony Jr.–was barely alive, with an Apgar score (rating newborn vitality on a scale of 0 to 10) of 1. In the following years, he suffered from spastic quadriplegia, cerebral palsy, and cortical blindness, and would require lifelong medical attention costing millions of dollars just to survive. The Sabias’ lawyers faulted Donna’s maternity clinic and the delivering physician for her son’s condition, initiating a 7-year lawsuit on the claim that a simple $40 ultrasound could have eliminated incalculable suffering and catastrophic expense.
* How often does medical mishap occur?
