When one is injured through the carelessness of a physician or employee of a health care provider a cause of action arises. For those of you who have malpractice claims, it is important that you realize that there are always two parts to liability aspects of these cases. In almost every case of professional error or malpractice, expert testimony is required. Such testimony involves a member of the defendant's own profession or specialty testifying under oath that the treatment given by the accused doctor, nurse or hospital employee fell beneath the standard of care that is ordinarily exercised by other members of defendant's profession in caring for or treating the patient. This may involve acts or omissions.
Some cases are so obvious that they speak for themselves.
For example, leaving a surgical instrument inside the body, or operating on the wrong part of the body, etc. The defense in these cases almost always presents strong evidence that whatever occurred happened, or could have happened, as a natural result of the illness or injury as opposed to any wrongdoing on the part of their client. Malpractice cases, whether they involve claims of wrongdoing against health care providers, architects, engineers, or other professional persons, almost always involve a battle of experts in all but the most basic cases. Whenever a person dies as a result of negligence or product defect, his or her immediate relatives have a cause of action based upon legislative rule embodied in the Wrongful Death Statutes of each of the United States. Who may sue depends upon the relationship that the party had with the deceased person, and it is carefully spelled out in the statutes.