Posted on: 18 September 2017

One of the misconceptions about medical malpractice cases is that if a medical care provider causes injury to a patient, he or she will automatically be liable for the damages. The reality is that medical malpractice cases are complex and require significant time and effort to win. From day one, you need to understand what you are facing and what you can do to potentially overcome challenges.

Why Is It Hard to Win?

To prove you are entitled to receive financial compensation from your medical care provider's insurance, you must establish that there was a professional relationship between the two of you, that he or she made a mistake, and that the mistake caused harm to you. Although each element might seem easy to prove, all of them are not.

Establishing that there was a relationship between you and the provider is the easiest part of a medical malpractice case. You do not have to show a written contract. The fact that he or she examined and treated you is enough.

However, proving that the provider made a mistake is infinitely more challenging. The difficulties stem from the fact that there are often multiple ways to treat health problems. Proving that your provider's actions were negligent and outside of the scope of what a competent provider would do is difficult.

Even if you can prove the provider's negligence, you still must link his or her actions to your injury. Depending on the nature of the injury, the provider could argue that there is no way to definitively prove it is linked to his or her actions. The insurance company could agree.

What Can You Do?

Fortunately, there are some tactics you can use to overcome many of the challenges that you would face in your case. For instance, relying on a medical expert to discuss what was and was not a logical method of treating your illness can help. His or her expert testimony in court could help a jury understand how the provider's actions were negligent.

You can also rely on the medical records from providers who treated you before and after the negligence occurred. The records can help to show a link between the actions of the negligent provider and your damages.

For instance, if you did not have diabetes before a doctor incorrectly prescribed a high dosage of steroids to treat a condition, you could show that the use of the steroids led to the development of diabetes.

Work with your medical malpractice attorney to further explore the challenges of your case and learn what can be done to overcome them.