Medical Malpractice Case Evaluation

When you go to see a doctor, you likely trust he or she will evaluate your medical condition carefully and either diagnose or treat it. Unfortunately, health care providers sometimes do make that can result in catastrophic or even fatal injuries. If you are concerned about the worth of your case, you should seek a medical malpractice case evaluation. The experienced Syracuse medical malpractice lawyers of DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Attorneys may be able to assess your case and represent you. We have more than three decades of experience. Insurers and defense attorneys alike are aware of our reputation and understanding of how to present these cases in a courtroom to improve the odds of reaching the best outcome for injured patients.

When our attorneys first receive a case, we look at when the date or dates of malpractice likely were, to make sure the statute of limitations has not expired. The statute of limitations is 2 ½ years from the date of malpractice or from the end of continuous treatment by the health care provider being sued. Based on the facts you tell us as a prospective client, we also look at whether it’s likely your provider departed from the professional standard of care owed to patients like you in Syracuse, given the specific circumstances. Your age, sex, and risk factors can impact the professional standard of care.

Whether a doctor has breached the professional standard of care also depends on his or her specialty. Under the locality rule, health care providers are expected to do what reasonably competent providers in the same specialty in the same geographic region would have done. We may be able to pursue damages if the consequences of the medical malpractice left you with injuries. For example, if your Syracuse dermatologist failed to biopsy a suspicious lesion and missed your cancer diagnosis, but a reasonably competent dermatologist in the same geographic region would have, and as a result, your skin progressed such that you needed a more expensive, painful procedure, you may have a claim for medical malpractice.

To continue our case evaluation, we will obtain your medical records and send them to an expert to determine precisely what the professional standard of care was and whether you have a case. In most case, the expert will be in the same specialty as the defendant; for example, if the defendant is a Syracuse emergency room physician, the professional standard of care may depend on what other reasonably competent ER physicians in Syracuse would have done.

When a medical expert agrees a case has merit, we will conduct further steps to determine whether litigation is appropriate. If the lawsuit is filed, we will need to prepare and file a certificate of merit with it.

The value of your medical malpractice case typically depends on the severity and type of injuries. When injuries are quite severe and alter the course of a patient’s life, damages may be substantial. Our experienced Syracuse medical malpractice lawyers have taken many cases to trial and either settled or won substantial damages awards, including up to $10.5 million for a failure to diagnose lawsuit and $4.1 million for a birth injury case. Each case is different and requires attention to the full scope of losses sustained by the particular plaintiff..

Compensatory damages can include past and future economic losses such as:

• Lost wages,
• Medical expenses,
• Out-of-pocket losses,
• Replacement services.

Compensatory damages usually also include noneconomic damages such as:

• Pain and suffering,
• Emotional distress,
• Mental anguish,
• Loss of consortium,
• Loss of enjoyment of life.

Here’s where it can be difficult to evaluate your case. Generally, a jury will award noneconomic damages according to witness testimony, both the patient’s own testimony and that of loved ones who have witnessed how the medical malpractice has impacted the patient’s life. Our lawyers will ask you and your family detailed questions about things you were able to do before your injuries and harm, and how your life has changed since.

If your loved one died due to medical malpractice in Syracuse, we may be able to file a wrongful death lawsuit to recover your pecuniary losses.

When you seek the best outcome for your medical malpractice lawsuit, you should retain a plaintiff’s attorney with many years of experience conducting medical malpractice case evaluations. The tenacious Syracuse medical malpractice lawyers of DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Attorneys seek justice for patients in Lowville, Rochester, Auburn, Watertown, Herkimer, Oswego, Wampsville, Canandaigua, Lyons, Ithaca, Cooperstown, Oneida, Utica, Binghamton, Elmira, Buffalo, Albany, and all of Upstate New York. For a free consultation, complete our online form or call us at 833-200-2000.