Victims of South Carolina medical mistakes have to prove they're entitled to compensation to win at trial or to get an out-of-court settlement from the insurance company for a doctor, nurse, or hospital. An attorney who handles medical malpractice cases describes the basics of the evidence needed to recover compensation for injuries or death from medical errors.
Transcript
How do you prove medical malpractice in South Carolina? This is basically what you've got to prove in plain English to have a solid case.
First, you prove your provider broke a medical safety rule designed to keep patients safe. These safety rules are called the standard of care. Now breaking the rule doesn't mean it was intentional, in fact, it's almost always not medical malpractice cases are about mistakes caused by carelessness. But that's where it gets pricey for victims and lawyers. To prove it, we have to hire experts to define the rule and show how it got broken. An expert is the same type of provider as the one who hurts. You we pay them not to buy their testimony but to compensate for the time and expertise they contribute to prove you've been wronged. Your expert will almost never be from the state of South Carolina and sometimes we need more than one.
The second thing you prove is, breaking the safety rule caused injury or death. Again, we rely on our experts to prove that. The third thing you prove is the amount of harm to justify money compensation. Medical malpractice victims are entitled to recover for the same losses as any other injury victim or family who suffered a wrongful death. Sometimes we need more experts to prove these losses, like an economist to prove lost wages, or another provider to prove the amount of future medical care. And spouses of victims also have a case to recover for the damage done to their marriage. You can read about these factors on other parts of our website.
You Need Help With South Carolina Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
So don't give up. Just because it's hard doesn't mean it's not worth it at worst, you might get answers to your questions which can give you peace of mind which is priceless. We have a very select medical malpractice case load. If you want to find out if you qualify to be one of our clients or just get some of your questions answered feel free to email us or start a live chat right where you are. Even if we can't help we’ll point you in the right direction. I thank you for thinking about this with me and I hope I see you soon.
