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Cincinnati Medical Malpractice Lawyer
Experienced Medical Attorneys in Ohio and Northern Kentucky
What many people don’t know is that medical malpractice is actually one of the most prominent causes of death in the United States. In fact, medical errors may account for anywhere between 250,000 – 400,000 deaths per year, but less than 10% of these errors ever get reported. This leaves thousands of families devastated, both financially and emotionally, from the premature, unnecessary, and preventable deaths of their loved ones. Meanwhile, those who survive medical malpractice are often left with debilitating, severe, and life-long injuries.
At TLF: The Medical Injury Law Firm, our Ohio and Northern Kentucky medical malpractice attorneys are highly experienced in dealing with the many complexities of medical malpractice cases. We are dedicated to helping victims and their families recover maximum compensation for all of their suffering and losses.
If you live in the Southwest Ohio area or Northern Kentucky area and seek a reputable law firm to recover damages for your losses, we encourage you to speak with a Covington or Cincinnati medical malpractice attorney at our law firm. Call (800) 698-4054 or complete our online intake form to schedule your free, no-obligation consultation today.
What Constitutes Medical Malpractice?
Medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare professional or provider fails to offer adequate treatment, fails to take the required action, or provides inferior treatment and the patient suffers damage, injury, or wrongful death as a result. Although most medical errors are not intentional, these negligent acts can still lead to a lifetime cut short or a lifetime full of pain for victims and their families. As such, personal injury law allows for injured patients or families of injured patients to sue for damages that resulted from the medical error.
Medical negligence can reveal itself in many forms, including things like misdiagnosis, administering the wrong medication, birth injuries, insufficient health management or therapy, and inappropriate aftercare. According to the National Library of Medicine, approximately 400,000 hospital patients experience some form of preventable harm each year due to medical negligence. It also accounts for a whopping 200,000 deaths.
If you or a loved one have suffered at the hands of negligent medical professionals, call a Cincinnati medical malpractice lawyer at TLF: The Medical Injury Law Firm today.
Types of Medical Malpractice
There are a number of ways that medical professionals can act with negligence that may result in medical malpractice lawsuits in Ohio or Kentucky. There are also a number of different types of medical professionals that may be involved, including physicians, surgeons, nurses, midwives, hospital staff, pharmacists, lab technicians, and other medical personnel, all of which can be guilty of making serious medical mistakes or negligent errors.
Some of the more common types of malpractice that our Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati medical malpractice attorneys at TLF see include:
- Physician Malpractice: Physicians are involved in such a wide range of their clients’ medical lives that there are a number areas where medical malpractice can occur.
- Misdiagnosis: When a healthcare provider incorrectly identifies or fails to identify a patient’s condition, it can lead to inappropriate treatment, delayed diagnosis and care, or no treatment at all, resulting in worsening health or additional injuries for the patient.
- Birth Injuries: Birth injuries are a common form of medical negligence, often resulting from negligent acts during labor and delivery. These injuries can occur when healthcare providers fail to adhere to standard medical practices, leading to harm to the newborn child or their mother.
- Surgery-Related Injuries: Surgeons have an incredibly important job with a lot riding on their performance. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for surgeons to commit surgical errors that can result in serious and often life-altering repercussions for the patient.
- Anesthesia Mistakes: Anesthesia overdose and other forms of anesthesia-related negligence can lead to devastating injuries or death.
- Hospital Mistakes: Defective medical equipment, staff and nursing negligence, medical record and documentation negligence, pharmacy negligence, and other administrative errors can lead to catastrophic injury for hospital patients.
- Emergency Room Negligence: When people seek urgent medical care, it is typically because they are suffering from serious, acute, and even life-threatening injuries. When they receive negligent care that results in further illness or death, they have the right to seek compensation and justice.
- Medication Errors: Whenever a doctor prescribes a drug, several problems can arise. Prescriptions are improperly written, pharmacies mix up medications, labels are created incorrectly, and nurses make mistakes in administering drugs. All of these things and more can lead to an adverse reaction or even a more disastrous outcome, including a potential pain medication overdose.
- Nursing Home Negligence: When a loved one in a nursing home or other long-term care facility is injured or neglected, those responsible may be held legally liable.
- Wrongful Death: The death of a loved one resulting from medical negligence can be devastating. In these cases, it’s crucial that the victim’s families are justly compensated for their loss.
What Does a Medical Lawyer Do?
At TLF, our Covington and Cincinnati medical malpractice lawyers represent patients who have suffered harm due to a negligent act by a doctor, nurse, or other health care professional. Our lawyers have a deep and thorough knowledge of Ohio and Kentucky medical laws and the standards of care owed by healthcare providers to their patients.
Our medical malpractice lawyers provide invaluable support and guidance throughout the entire process, from initial consultation to the conclusion of your case. We’re prepared to gather and analyze medical records, consult with medical experts to establish the link between the negligent act and the injury, and build a strong case to demonstrate the breach of the standard of care owed. By doing so, we help victims seek justice and compensation for their injuries, medical expenses, and other related damages.
Medical Malpractice Law
Under medical malpractice law, hospitals, doctors, and other health care providers are expected to meet a certain standard of care. When they fail to do so, the professional may be held legally liable if the patient suffers harm or injury as a result of their deviation from the standard of care, specifically if it can be proven that another professional under similar circumstances would not have done the same thing.
As a result, anyone who established a doctor-patient relationship with a provider may seek compensation for any injuries they suffered due to the poor medical treatment (or lack thereof) provided.
Ohio Malpractice Law
Medical malpractice standards and laws range from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In Ohio, any medical malpractice case filed in state courts must be supported by an “Affidavit of Merit” from an expert witness, typically a doctor or other qualified health care practitioner, who swears under oath that the expert:
- Has gone through all of the plaintiff’s medical records ;
- Is familiar with the medical standard of care that relates to the plaintiff’s treatment;
- Believes that the standard of care was not followed and that the plaintiff was harmed as a consequence of their health care provider’s negligence.
A complaint for medical malpractice in Ohio that is not supported by an Affidavit of Merit will likely be dismissed. A lawsuit filed with an affidavit that does not fulfill all of the standards of the Ohio Rule of Civil Procedure 10(D)(2), however, is less likely to be dismissed. Plaintiffs who want further time to complete the affidavit may also request a filing extension.
Kentucky Malpractice Law
Several states, including Kentucky, broadly define malpractice as any incident or event in which a medical professional fails to adhere to or live up to the routine and applicable standard of care in a given patient’s case, with an aggrieved patient eventually finding ample cause of action to file a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Unlike in Ohio, Kentucky does not require an expert opinion or the testimony of an outside medical provider to present a viable medical malpractice claim. However, many patients fail to recognize that, should the testimony substantiate or corroborate the patient’s claims, starting the claims case process with testimony from a medical expert can still prove extremely beneficial.
Medical Malpractice Statute of Limitations Ohio
A statute of limitations is a legal term for the deadline by which a plaintiff must file a lawsuit with the courts. According to Ohio Revised Code § 2305.113, prospective plaintiffs must bring their cases to the state’s civil court system within one year after the underlying medical mistake.
The one-year term begins when you discover the harm (or reasonably should have noticed it) or when your provider-patient connection ends, whichever comes first. Ohio’s revised code also establishes an outside four-year time limit for initiating medical malpractice cases. There are some exceptions to this one-year/four-year limit, which can be found in § 2305.113.
Medical Malpractice Statute of Limitations Kentucky
Under Kentucky’s Revised Statutes 413-140 and 413-170, medical malpractice claims in Kentucky must also be filed within one year after the accident or error.
However, in the event of legitimate and documentable instances of delayed discovery of the injury or harm, the courts may elect to extend any negligence-related action’s limitations under a statute of repose. This allows citizens five years from the date of suspected negligence or from the date of the discovery of harm as determined by a reasonable person’s standard.
What Damages are Available in a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit?
Like with personal injury cases, there are three categories of damages that can be awarded in medical negligence cases: economic, noneconomic, and punitive damages. However, punitive damages are typically only reserved for instances of gross negligence.
Economic damages entail calculable financial losses that a plaintiff experiences, such as medical expenses and lost income. Noneconomic damages are typically more subjective than economic damages. This is because they differ from one plaintiff to the next and are difficult to quantify with a specific number.
The types of economic damages that our Cincinnati medical malpractice lawyers may work to recover on your beheld include:
- Payment of past and future medical treatment
- Repayment of lost income, both past and future
- Compensation for decreased earning capacity
- Loss of employment or business opportunities
- Loss of use of property
- Value of domestic services
- Any other financial losses resulting from the negligence
Meanwhile, non-economic damages that are available in a medical malpractice case include compensation for:
- Pain and suffering
- Mental anguish
- Emotional distress
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of society, companionship, and consortium
What is the Cap on Medical Malpractice in Ohio?
The Ohio legislature, like many other states, has enacted legislation that sets a limit or “cap” on the amount of compensation that can be awarded to a plaintiff who is successful in a medical malpractice claim. In other words, even if a jury finds a defendant guilty of malpractice, an Ohio medical malpractice cap (or an Ohio wrongful death damages cap) limits the amount awarded to the plaintiff.
Only non-economic losses are covered under Ohio’s medical malpractice damages cap. Under Ohio Revised Code section 2323.43, non-economic damages in a medical malpractice action may not exceed $250,000, or three times the plaintiff’s economic losses, with a total limit of $350,000 per plaintiff (or $500,000 in any case involving several plaintiffs).
If the negligence resulted in permanent and/or catastrophic injuries, the threshold will be raised to $500,000 per plaintiff or $1 million per case.
What is the Cap on Medical Malpractice in Kentucky?
Unlike Ohio and many other states in the U.S., Kentucky does not impose a cap on the amount of compensation available for victims of medical malpractice.
How the Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati Medical Malpractice Lawyers at TLF Can Help
The medical malpractice lawyers at our law firm are dedicated to serving Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky residents who have suffered medical injuries. When you believe you have a legal issue due to negligent medical acts, our compassionate legal team will take the time to listen to your story.
We are sensitive to these problems and highly sympathetic to our clients, and after so many years of experience, we are able to quickly and effectively assess the viability and potential of medical malpractice cases. When you hire us to help with your case, our skilled attorneys will work to identify all responsible parties and begin gathering and preparing the evidence for your case. This may include contacting expert witnesses and other professionals who will work with us to demonstrate your injury and related damages and help to prove your case.
TLF proudly advocates for victims and their families following serious, catastrophic, and fatal medical malpractice incidents in recovering the financial compensation they need to help restore their lives. We also work toward improving health care so the mistakes that injure our clients are not repeated.
Call Our Covington and Cincinnati Medical Negligence Law Firm For a Free Consultation Today
At TLF: The Medical Injury Law Firm, our Covington and Cincinnati medical malpractice lawyers understand the stress that you are facing, including the piling medical bills, lost wages, health issues, and many other struggles associated with you or your loved one’s injuries. It is our job to properly assess your losses and damages to ensure a recovery that measures up to those significant costs.
When you secure legal representation from the experienced personal injury attorneys at our firm, you can rest assured knowing you will be represented by compassionate, experienced legal professionals who know what it takes to hold negligent parties responsible for their actions.
To consult with a medical malpractice attorney at TLF, call or email us today to schedule your free consultation! You can reach us by calling our Covington office at (859) 578-9130, our Cincinnati office at (513) 651-4130, or toll-free at (800) 698-4054.
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We are happy to offer a free consultation to evaluate your case. If you hire us as your legal counsel, we will represent you on a contingency-fee basis. You will pay no attorneys’ fees unless we recover financial damages.