NY Medical Malpractice – Top 5 Reasons Not to Sue your Doctor
Welcome, thank you for joining me. I am Gerry Oginski in New York Medical Malpractice and personal injury trial lawyer, practicing law here in the states of New York.
This topic is about the straight truth about the top 5 reasons why you should not sue your doctor.
Reason 1: You like your doctor and who does not? We put our trust in doctor’s hands. We put our lives in their hands and what happens when they betray that trust, what happens if you suffer an injury as a result of an improper medical care that results in the significant and permanent injury and disability.
Well, I have had people come into my office to tell me that they like there doctor so much. They do not want to bring a lawsuit against them. And I say that is perfectly fine. If that is the way you feel then by no means should you bring a lawsuit against them. I also tell them that weeks and months from now, if you are still disabled as a result of your injury and cannot go back to work, or if you loose your job as a result of your disability, feelings of anger and hostility will surface and now you will be looking most likely to bring an action against the doctor for the harm that was caused to you through no fault of your own. So now you are disabled, you cannot do your daily activities, you cannot return to work and now you are sitting home wondering what you are going to do for the rest of your life and how you are going to improve your life and whether or not you should be bringing an action to seek compensation against the doctor that cause you harm.
Reason 2: What good will the money do you? And it is a typical phrase that defense attorneys like to raise during jury selection and most importantly during closing arguments in a trial. Okay, we recognized that this person has been injured, but what good will the money do to them? Well, in our system of justice, compensation is the only thing we have that will try and make that person whole again. We can not turn the clock back, we can not go back and say, “doctor do me a favor, do not do that because this person will suffer and injury if you do that.” So what do we do? Well our system allows us to obtain compensation and literally any time someone causes harm to someone else, they incur debt that has to be repaid, okay. And that debt can be repaid in terms of the patient’s medical expenses and cost of surgery and any treatment the patient needs to try and get better. But what about other economic expenses like their lost earnings, their inability to go to work, their inability to provide for their family, or we can calculate that, and what about the intangibles, like pain and sufferings. The pain that the person experience from the time of the malpractice until the time that the case is resolved. That is a fine night period of time, but then what about their future? If we are able to determine that this person’s injury is permanent and they will have it for the rest of their life, that person is entitled to receive compensation for their pain and the suffering that have caused. The followup argument to that is, well they can go on welfare, and they can go and get Medicaid. Well, here is another problem, why should now this injured victim be a burden on the city. Why should they be a burden on the social security, why should they be a burden on Medicaid, they should not. Remember, the debt that was incurred was because of someone’s wrong doing. You cause harm, you cause a problem, and you are obligated to pay that person back. And how do you do it. You got to pay them for their expenses, both economic expenses and the non-economic expenses. Even if it is an expensive one, that is an obligation that cannot be changed or waived.
Reason 3: You are afraid that the doctor’s reputation will be tarnished if you bring a lawsuit in the state of New York. Well, I am here to tell you that that is not true. The doctor maybe offended when they get a lawsuit papers but nothing will really happen, why? Because the majority of doctors recognized in today’s societ
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