Medical malpractice can be a fairly controversial area of personal injury law because many people are hesitant to accuse their healthcare providers of negligence or recklessness. Sometimes this is because they believe that the medical professional was licensed and qualified and thus, could not have made a mistake, and other times it is because victims believe that doctors can afford better attorneys and therefore would not be found liable. In many cases, victims are also concerned about proving malpractice.
For many medical procedures, patients are unconscious, or their judgment and senses are otherwise impaired. This can make the testimony of a patient unreliable, and victims of medical malpractice may be unable to prove that the health care provider did anything wrong. This is especially true because the health care providers often author the medical reports used as evidence in the case. It can seem like the deck is stacked against patients, but this is not necessarily the case.
Thanks to the ‘res ipsa loquitur’ legal doctrine, you can actually have strong legal grounds for bringing a medical malpractice claim against a health care provider simply by showing that you suffered from adverse health following a procedure, depending on the circumstances. The doctrine essentially allows victims to claim that there is no way that the health issue could have occurred unless there was negligence on the part of the health care provider.
What the ‘res ipsa loquitur’ doctrine means is that instead of requiring the victim to prove that a health care provider was negligent, the health care provider is required to prove that he or she was not negligent. This can give you much stronger legal ground to stand on. If you believe you have been the victim of medical malpractice in New York, consider meeting with an attorney to help you bring a case against the medical professional responsible for your injury.