When it comes to injuries caused by medical malpractice during emergency medical care, there are special rules that apply. “First responders” are protected by state laws from most lawsuits. And although there are no such protections for doctors and nurses in the emergency room, the very nature of emergencies lowers the professional expectation to avoid medical mistakes.
According to the Journal of the American Dental Association, there are certain types of dental procedures that require more intensive surgeries or complicated processes in which malpractice is more common. Consequently, dentists may be more prone to make errors when administering or performing these treatments when compared to other, more simple procedures.
Between 1999 and 2008, a high proportion of medical malpractice claims were filed in New York State. Court Statistics.org reports that in 2008 medical malpractice cases resulted in 7.4% of all tort cases, and 1.1% of all civil lawsuits filed in the state. As medical malpractice laws differ from state to state, it is important to understand the New York State laws pertaining to medical malpractice before filing a lawsuit.
In normal medical malpractice cases, the “guilt” of a medical practitioner is defended in court by an obvious argument that someone else in the same situation might also have done it. Thus most medical errors wind up in civil courts in the form of malpractice charges.
In New York State, a wrongful death case can be pursued by the deceased person’s family member in a manner, which the deceased person could have pursued in court had that person been alive.
