Welcome and thank you for joining me. I am Gerry Oginski in New York Medical Malpractice in Personal Entry Trial Lawyer Practicing Law here in the State of New York. Today’s topic is how do lawsuits work? First, there's a series of video tips to help you understand the different parts of the lawsuit and how this information can help you in your potential lawsuit.
First, how does an Attorney know whether or not you have a valid case? So, the first part is in evaluation of whether or not you have a valid case. The steps to an evaluation involve two crucial questions that an Attorney is going to ask you. And it’s especially the medical malpractice case those two questions are; what do you believe was done wrong and what permanent harm did you suffer as a result of that wrong doing? And contained within those two important questions are three legal elements necessary for your Attorney to understand whether or not you have a possible valid medical malpractice case. What do you think was done wrong to establishes in the Attorney’s mind, what was the departure from good accepted medical care, in other words what was done wrong by the doctor to you? Did they miss something? Did they diagnose something incorrectly? Did they do something to you that caused you harm? Those are the things that an Attorney will need to know in order to evaluate your case.
The second part of the question is, what injury did you suffer as a result of whatever was done wrong to you. If nothing was done to you, then obviously then there is no basis to proceed forward. If something was done wrong to you then we have to show in the legal term is “Causation.” We have to show that, that wrong doing was a substantial factor in causing or bring about your injuries. So, with that really means is, whether it’s more a likely true then not true that the injury that you suffered is a result of the wrong doing that was caused to you by doctor or hospital.
The third element of the question that we ask the moment to go is what permanent harm did you suffer as a result? If you suffered temporarily harm it’s unlikely that an experienced medical malpractice Attorney in New York is going to take on your case. It doesn’t mean you don’t have a case, it just means is going to be very difficult to find someone who is willing to prosecute your action.
If you suffered a long term permanent injury or disability as a result of any wrong doing, then you have a much better chance of having a main experience of medical malpractice Attorney to take on your case and prosecute your matter. Once you’ve met with an Attorney and you’ve gone through the details of what you believe occurred and what you remember happening. Your Attorney is then going to obtain all of your medical records and have them evaluated by an expert in a similar field of medicine to the doctor or hospital that treated you. Once your Attorney is had a chance to obtain information from you about all the details that your remember happening. He or she is then going to obtain all of your medical records and then they will review all of your records and then send the records out to a he medical expert so that the expert can confirm not just evidence of wrong doing but that the wrong doing caused injury and that the injury is significant and permanent.
In New York, it is an absolute requirement that a physician has reviewed your records and has been able to confirm that there was basis for a case. If an expert is unable to confirm that you have a valid basis for a case it is impossible to go forward with the potential medical malpractice matter. To give you an idea of the length of time it takes to get your records, you can take anywhere from a week to two months to get all of your medical records. And it simply involves us sending off permission slips, known as Authorizations to the hospital or to the doctor’s office asking them for copies of your medical records. Sometimes it takes a lengthy period of time of the times we get it relatively quickly. If you wish to get your records, you can do so and they tends to be quicker then if your Attorney gets it for some reason the doctors and the hospitals tend to give the patients they’re records a lot quicker then they do for the Attorneys.
In any event, once the records are obtain and they have been reviewed by a medical expert, the Attorney will then speak to your medical expert. That he has retained in order to review your records. That medical expert evaluation will determine whether or not the lawyer has a valid basis to start a lawsuit on your behalf. If it turns out that there is no valid basis to bring a lawsuit, the Attorney is then obligated to tell you not just verbally but in writing that he cannot accept your case and then give you your options is to what your can and cannot do. Typically the Attorney will tell you what the time limit is to bring a lawsuit and strongly recommend that you seek advice of another Attorney immediately to get another opinion. If after discussion with the medical expert, the Attorney determines that you have a valid basis for a case then he will advice you of the fact that there has been a confirmation of wrong doing, the wrong doing has caused injury and the injury is resulted in the permanent and significant disability that will now allow the Attorney to bring a lawsuit on your behalf.
Join me for the next video tip which is a continuation of the series of topics concerning, how lawsuits work? Thank you for joining me, I am Gerry Oginski. Have a great day.
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