Are you wondering how long a medical malpractice case will take? These are some of the most complex cases that we handle at Morgenstern & Herd, PLLC, but we can guarantee to never back down. We will exhaust every available resource to make sure you receive the full compensation you deserve. No matter how long your case takes, our Tampa Bay injury attorneys will be there with you every step of the way.
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How Long Will a Medical Malpractice Case Take? | Process
In the State of Florida, you can’t jump right away into filing a medical malpractice suit. You have to go through a pre-suit process, during which time your attorney will gather all relevant medical records and send these to an expert for independent review. This expert will provide an affidavit, which your attorney will send via certified mail to the medical provider. That medical provider will have 90 days to consult with an attorney and malpractice carrier, and at the end of that period must either admit or deny the claim. If the medical provider denies your claim, your attorney will file a lawsuit.
To win your case, you need to do more than document substandard care. Substandard care per se does not cause damages. You need to prove causation – in other words, that the documented substandard care directly caused physical and/or emotional damages. In general, you also have to demonstrate catastrophic, long term, or permanent damages. If you recover before too far into your suit – and suits will, again, last years – you may only get enough in recoverable damages to pay your attorney and the expert witnesses you hired.
How Long Will a Medical Malpractice Case Take? | Timeline
In Florida, the pre-suit process (explained above) adds a 90-day waiting period before a case can even go to trial. Medical malpractice is one of the more frequently litigated areas of law, which means the courts are backed up. One case could take two to three years if mistakes or acts of negligence are well-documented or obvious, or to five to six years in cases that require deposition of experts from around the country, and conflicting evidence or testimony.
If you need help filing a medical malpractice claim, please call our Tampa medical malpractice lawyers today for a free consultation.
