MEDICAL MALPRACTICE

Medical malpractice is a tort action seeking damages from a medical professional for injuries suffered due to incompetent medical practice. Medical malpractice actions are typically variants of negligence lawsuits.

To sustain an action for medical malpractice, the victim must prove that the medical professional did not live up to the reasonable standard of competence expected in the industry and that damages were suffered as a result of that incompetence.

Medical malpractice actions can be brought against doctors, hospitals and other medical professionals for acting incompetently or for failing to act in a manner that would reasonably be expected of the professional.

While the “old” rules used to account for the doctor’s community in determining the level of competence expected, the modern rule is to hold or medical professionals to the standard of reasonable competence expected of medical professionals nationwide.