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North Dakota Medical Malpractice Lawyer

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If you think you have been the victim of medical malpractice you should contact an attorney specializing in malpractice immediately. The state of North Dakota has a statute of limitations that limits the amount of time between the date the injury occurred and the date a claim is filed. You have two years in most cases, but if you acted reasonably and did not discover the injury until later there may be an exception. In this case you may have two years from the date the injury should have been or was discovered. The cap under any circumstances is six years except in the case of minors, disabled persons or prisoners.

It is vital that you find an attorney to review the circumstances of your case and can ensure your rights are protected. A competent attorney will have a good idea upon hearing the facts of the case if you have a claim. As most malpractice attorneys work on contingency they will not accept cases that do not present a reasonable chance of winning. It is the burden of the plaintiff to prove that a health care provider deviated from the standards of care legally accepted of them. You must be able to prove that you suffered damages from their error. This can be anything from a missed or wrong diagnosis to a surgical error.

Dentist, therapists, nurses and doctors can be subject to malpractice claims and some are required to carry insurance. There are some circumstances when the healthcare facility like a hospital carries some of the responsibility and can be included in the lawsuit. In the state of North Dakota there is a cap on the non economic damages of $500,000 no matter how many plaintiffs or defendants are involved. There is no cap on the awards involving economic damages but if it is high there will be a court review. There is no cap on the fees that an attorney may charge their client in this state.

Medical professionals are, by law, required to have professional liability insurance so they can offset the costs and risk of lawsuits that are based on medical malpractice. Medical malpractice law is a highly technical field of law, and malpractice lawsuits tend to be fiercely defended by well-funded defense firms. Even within the specialized practice of medical malpractice law, some lawyers have sub-specialties of practice, for example focusing on surgical errors, misdiagnosis, or birth trauma cases.

Often one of the highest costs in a medical malpractice case is for expert witness fees. Expert witnesses are often health care professionals who can testify to the appropriate standard of medical care, how the defendant deviated from this standard, and relates the patient's injury back to this deviation. And only in rare cases, where the medical error is so obvious that it does not require specific medical knowledge to understand the circumstances, is an expert witness not required.

73% of settled medical malpractice cases involved a medical error, and a recent study showed that an average of 195,000 deaths in a hospital from 2000 to 2002 in the U.S. were due to preventable medical errors. Medical errors harm about 1.5 million people every year, and 400,000 preventable drug-related injuries occur in hospitals every year, 800,000 in long-term care settings, and 530,000 in outpatient clinics.

It is relatively simple to find an attorney to represent you. Research local attorneys online or contact the Bar Association in your area for some names. You will want to consult with an attorney as quickly as possible to make sure your rights are preserved. You will have the chance to lay out your case and get the opinion of a competent attorney as to the facts of your situation and the chances of success.