Contact Accomplished Medical Malpractice Lawyers In Jacksonville
Doctors aren’t perfect. However, you have a right to receive a certain standard of care when a licensed medical professional evaluates, tests, diagnoses or treats you for a symptom, disease or condition.
At the Law Office of Craig Gibbs in Jacksonville, we provide attentive and professional representation for people whose lives are affected when the medical industry fails to provide the required standard of care for a patient.
The Basics Of Medical Malpractice
In the state of Florida, medical malpractice is the term used to describe negligent or wrongful behavior that occurs when any health care professional is responsible for treating a patient. This could be anything from careless work practices to failure to monitor a patient who is in need of attention.
Malpractice also includes:
- Misdiagnosis
- Failure to appropriately diagnose or treat a patient’s disease or condition
- Senseless delays in treating or diagnosing a patient
- Administering incorrect medications, prescriptions and dosages
- Nursing home neglect or abuse
- Errors in surgery or anesthesia
- Birth injuries (including Erb’s palsy and cerebral palsy)
- Failure to prevent hospital-borne infections
Who Can Be Held Liable For Medical Malpractice In Florida?
Medical malpractice claims in Jacksonville, Duval County and across Florida can involve multiple parties. Some of the healthcare providers and entities that our medical malpractice lawyer may hold accountable include:
- Medical doctors: For delayed diagnoses, medication errors or improper treatment decisions
- Radiologists: For misreading scans or delayed reporting
- Surgeons: For operating on the wrong body part, leaving surgical instruments in the body or causing avoidable surgical injuries
- Pathologists: For diagnostic errors
- Osteopathic physicians: For negligent diagnosis or treatment
- Nurses: For medication errors, charting mistakes and failure to notify physicians of any issues
- Anesthesiologists and CRNAs: For errors involving anesthesia dosage, oxygen monitoring or patient evaluation
- Dentists and Orthodontists: For nerve injuries, infections, extraction mistakes or failure to diagnose oral disease
- Pharmacists: For dispensing the wrong medication or incorrect dosage instructions
- Hospitals: For negligent hiring, understaffing and unsanitary conditions
- Nursing homes and assisted living facilities: For neglect, falls, dehydration, medication errors or abuse
- Emergency room groups: Failure to diagnose strokes, heart attacks, infections or traumatic injuries
- Laboratories and imaging centers: For contaminated samples, inaccurate results or delayed reporting
Our medical malpractice attorney can develop legal strategies tailored to the specific facts of your claim.
Is Every Mistake Considered Medical Malpractice?
The short answer is no. If the person treating you makes a mistake and you experience no physical harm, it’s not considered malpractice. For example, if you are diagnosed with a condition that requires surgery, and in the course of the surgery, the surgeon discovers a different condition that would have also required surgery, it is not necessarily malpractice.
Since malpractice suits involve a number of fine details, and if you’re concerned that a medical professional has harmed you, please consult us for an evaluation of the specifics in your case. You may also consult us if another law firm turned you down and you need a second opinion.
What Are The Core Legal Elements To Prove In A Florida Medical Malpractice Claim?
A successful medical malpractice claim generally requires proof of these four essential elements:
- Duty of care: The healthcare provider must offer medical treatment in accordance with accepted professional standards.
- Breach of the standard of care: The healthcare provider failed to meet the accepted standards of care.
- Causation: The error caused your injury or worsened your condition
- Measurable damages: The negligence resulted in measurable losses
Under Florida Statutes § 766.203, you must follow a pre-suit process before filing a lawsuit. As such, your attorney must investigate with the help of experts and provide a formal Notice of Intent (NOI) to initiate litigation to the defendants. NOI must be delivered with a corroborating affidavit; thereafter, you have 90 days to engage in informal settlements.
What Compensation Can A Medical Malpractice Victim Receive In Florida?
Compensation may include:
- Past and future medical expenses
- Lost income and reduced earning capacity
- Pain and suffering
- Disability or disfigurement
- Wrongful death damages payable to surviving family members
- Out-of-pocket expenses
- Loss of enjoyment of life
Our team will fight for your fair compensation to help you move forward with your life.
A Medical Malpractice Lawyer Can Help You Pursue Justice
Most people don’t believe medical malpractice is a real threat to their health and safety. However, an alarming number of people die in U.S. hospitals every year from some form of malpractice. Those who survive these incidents can be left with lifelong scars and emotional trauma.
At the Law Office of Craig Gibbs, we fight to recover compensation for victims of medical malpractice. We also sometimes take on wrongful death cases for the families of those who have died from medical negligence.
Let Us Evaluate Your Medical Injury Case
Since they are challenging and difficult cases, we don’t take every malpractice case that comes through our doors. However, if we hear your story and decide to represent you, it will be because we believe you have an excellent chance of receiving significant compensation via settlement or jury award.
Get the conversation started today by calling us at 904-396-4499 or sending an email inquiry.
