Meaning of Medical Malpractice

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Medical malpractice is a term that refers to negligent treatment, lack of appropriate treatment or any other departure from the accepted standards of health/medical care and safety by a medical professional or health care provider that leads to harming a patient. It can include wrong diagnosis, failure to treat, improper treatment, delay in treatment, prescription error, lack of appropriate follow-up and much more.
A medical malpractice victim is entitled to recover damages and be compensated for the needless medical expenses incurred, lost services, lost wages, compensation for suffering & pain and punitive damages. To claim the compensation, the victim has to hire a medical malpractice attorney. A lawyer can help the victim to produce credible evidence of malpractice to substantiate the claim.
A plaintiff must establish four elements of the tort of negligence for a successful medical malpractice claim:

1.     A duty was owed: a legal duty exists whenever a hospital or health care provider undertakes care or treatment of a patient.
2.     A duty was breached: the provider failed to conform to the relevant standard care.
3.     The breach caused an injury: The breach of duty was a direct cause and the proximate cause of the injury.
4.     Damage: Without damage (losses which may be pecuniary or emotional), there is no basis for a claim, regardless of whether the medical provider was negligent. Likewise, damage can occur without negligence, for example, when someone dies from a fatal disease.

When a physician agrees to treat someone and a doctor & patient relationship is formed, a duty of care is naturally owed by the physician to the patient. The evidence of compensable injury is also easily identified and proved. However, the second and the fourth points are the ones that are difficult to prove, especially by a layman. It is not easy to prove that the physician did not deliver treatment and care conforming to the accepted standards. Moreover, the claim that the injuries to the plaintiff were caused directly by the physician's substandard or negligent care is contested strongly. The defendant can argue that external factors that are unrelated to the care extended to the patient were responsible for the injury.

The services of a medical malpractice attorney who is well aware of the medical problems as well as the medical law can help the victim of medical malpractice fight for his legal rights. The lawyer helps the claimant put forth his claim before the court in a complete and accurate manner. Most of these lawyers take cases on contingency basis, charging fee as a percentage of the compensation amount.


Medical malpractice law is a very specialized and technical field. There are several lawyers who handle cases associated with specific areas of medical negligence only. For instances, some attorneys take up cases related to surgical errors, while there are others who take up only birth trauma cases.

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