Massachusetts Medical
Malpractice Liability & Personal Injury Lawyer
Medical Malpractice cases in MA
Frequently Asked Questions about Medical
Malpractice Injury Cases in Massachusetts
How much is my case worth?
This is one of the hardest questions to answer. I can only determine
what a medical malpractice case is worth after a thorough evaluation of
the case, and a a complete assessment of the damages or
injuries
that were caused. Then I would have to compare the case to other
similar cases with judgments given in Massachusetts, and estimate how
strong the evidence of malpractice is, so I can determine how likely we
are to win the case. After calculating all these factors, I'll
determine what I think the case is worth, what I think we would be
willing to settle for, and what offer I think we should reject and fight it at trial.
My Doctor was mean, rude, not helpful, and didn't
tell me what I needed to know. Can I sue?
It depends. If we can establish that the doctor did not meet the
expected standard of care of care for his specialty, and that you were
caused damage by his negligence or carelessness, then
possibly.
However we can't just sue because things didn't turn out well, or
because he or she wasn't very nice.
How long will it take to get my settlement?
Quite some time, unfortunately. These cases are very involved,
and
require a tremendous amount of time to work through. A slam
dunk
case may settle in a year or less,
but that is not very common. More typically, you should expect a case
to take 2-4 years to be resolved, and maybe longer if we have
to
take the case to trial to get a judgment. Some trial cases can take up
to 7 years, and I've had cases that have even dragged
on for
up to 10 years, although that is rare.
What is a Medical Malpractice Tribunal?
In Massachusetts, a case must go before a Medical Malpractice
Tribunal before it can proceed to a court and, ultimately a jury
trial. The job of the 3 member tribunal is to determine whether a
case has sufficient merit to move on.
This is largely a formality for an experience malpractice
attorney. The burden is not that high to establish sufficient merit
before the tribunal. If your case isn't compelling enough to
convince the tribunal, you generally either are not sufficiently
prepared to fight and win and trial, or you don't have a very good
case. In my 30 years experience, I've only failed to get approval
from the tribunal once. Even then, there is a remedy. You can post a
$6000 bond up front to override the tribunal's rejection. The one
time this happened to me, I posted the bond, and ultimately won the
case.
Please contact me to set up your case review, or fill out this form and I'll get
in touch with you. All information is strictly confidential.
|