“Medical Malpractice” is a term that is used to describe a mistake that is made by someone providing healthcare to another person. In the law it is called negligence or a lack of due care. At Davis Miles, we represent individuals and families who have suffered injuries or have lost a loved one due to the negligence of a physician, nurse, technician, hospital, nursing home, clinic, pharmacy, drug manufacturer, laboratory, or other healthcare provider.

Serious injury or death may result from medical negligence in a variety of areas. The medical malpractice may involve:

• injuries to a mother and baby in the birth process (labor and delivery);
• injuries to babies or small children;
• brain injuries which can permanently change a person’s life;
• injuries from surgery by either doing the wrong thing or failing to do the right thing;
• injuries in hospitals or rehabilitation facilities;
• injuries from medications which may be the wrong medication;
• the wrong amount of medication or a medication that is not checked and monitored;
• injuries from a failure to recognize and treat a medical problem from a failure to diagnosis, a delay in diagnosis or a misdiagnosis;
• injuries that are caused by mistakes in the emergency department;
• injuries that are caused by mistakes in the way doctors or nurses or technicians write the medical records;
• injuries from medical devices that are used to treat a patient or that are placed the body like an artificial joint;
• injuries that occur in nursing homes or rehabilitation facilities because of a failure to monitor and care for a person.

If you or a loved one is injured from the negligence or carelessness of a healthcare provider you or the loved one are entitled to be compensated for the injury and the losses that result from the injury. A lawyer and a law firm with experience and expertise in medical malpractice litigation can help you. Please contact us at (480) 733-6800 so we can help you find out whether you or a loved one has been a victim of medical malpractice and, if so, what you can do about it.

Understanding the process may help you. After the initial phone call, you will meet with us to discuss the medical or medically related injury.

The process is that you first meet with us to discuss the situation. A lawyer in our firm with many years of experience who is a certified specialist in injury and wrongful death litigation will meet with you. You will not be charged for the meeting. If it looks like you may have been the victim of medical malpractice, the next step is to collect the most important medical records and to have the records reviewed by a doctor, nurse or medical researcher who will perform an initial evaluation of the records. If it appears from the initial evaluation of the medical records that you or a loved one was the victim of medical negligence, we will meet again to tell you what has been learned and to begin the process of a thorough and complete evaluation of all of your medical records by an “expert witness.” An expert witness is a doctor, a nurse, a technician, a pharmacist, an engineer who works on safety and medical issues, or other individual with expertise in medical and medically related services, who agrees to evaluate your case and prepare a report explaining the medical negligence. The expert witness also agrees to testify in your case. It is extremely important that your lawyer has the ability to locate, work with and pay for expert witnesses.

After retaining the expert witnesses and getting the reports from the expert witnesses, the attorney prepares a “demand” for compensation and sends it to the individuals or entities that caused the injuries. You will be involved in the process and will approve the demand and the amount of compensation being demanded from the individuals or entities. Most claims are “settled” without a lawsuit. A settlement is simply an agreement between the injured person and the person or entity that caused the injury. The injured person is compensated in an amount agreed to by the person or entity causing the injuries.

Finally, if your claim cannot be settled, a lawsuit is filed for you. In the course of the lawsuit, which is referred to as “litigation,” information is exchanged, witnesses are interviewed by the attorneys with a court reporter present (this is called a “deposition”), medical research is continued and the depositions of the expert witnesses are taken by the lawyers. The judge assigned to your case will set a schedule for the litigation. The judge will also set a time for a settlement conference which will be another chance to settle the claim. The settlement conference is set after the exchange of information and depositions have been completed. In the settlement conference, an experienced judge or attorney serves as a mediator. The mediator will meet with the lawyers and the clients in an effort to reach a settlement of your claim.

Finally, if the claim does not settle, your case will be set for a trial with a jury and all of the evidence that has been put together over the months will be presented to the jury. It is critical that your lawyer have experience in presenting evidence in medical malpractice claims to a jury.

At Davis Miles we are fully prepared to assist you in pursuing your medical malpractice claim from start to finish and in effectively presenting the evidence of your injury and the cause of your injury to a jury. 

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