Were you a victim of medical malpractice in Waldorf, MD? Understanding your legal rights is critical. An experienced Waldorf medical malpractice lawyer at Alpert Schreyer Personal Injury Lawyers can help you stand up and fight for justice. Call us at (301) 932-9997.
Collectively, our attorneys have over 125 years of combined experience handling complex injury cases. Since we started our law firm, we’ve recovered millions of dollars on behalf of injury victims and their families.
You may deserve compensation for your medical bills, lost income, and personal losses, such as pain, suffering, and trauma. Contact our law firm in Waldorf, Maryland, today to schedule a free consultation.
How Can Alpert Schreyer Personal Injury Lawyers Help If You Were a Victim of Medical Malpractice in Waldorf?
We all trust our doctors to provide the highest quality care possible. When your doctor makes a mistake, it can have a dramatic impact on your life. Victims often feel angry, violated, and hopeless.
While money can’t restore your health, it can make a world of difference in your future. An experienced Waldorf personal injury attorney at Alpert Schreyer Personal Injury Lawyers can help you fight for justice.
When you hire our team, you benefit from a team of lawyers who will:
- Conduct our own investigation and carefully evaluate your legal options
- Ensure you understand what’s happening with your case
- Hire the medical experts you’ll need to prove your case
- Evaluate your case value, considering your unique losses
- Negotiate with the insurance companies for the maximum compensation possible
- Take your case to trial if necessary to get full compensation
Our Waldorf personal injury lawyers know that medical malpractice cases are incredibly complex and personal. We have the skills to help. Contact us today to learn more.
How Common is Medical Malpractice in Maryland?
According to some experts, over 250,000 Americans die every year due to preventable medical mistakes. By some estimates, this makes medical negligence the third leading cause of death in the U.S.
State-by-state information on medical malpractice claims is available through the National Practitioner Data Bank. In 2023, 248 medical malpractice claims were reported across the state of Maryland.
What is Medical Malpractice in Maryland?
All medical professionals are held to certain standards. They receive years of training so that they understand the medical standard of care. Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor departs from the standard of care.
Our lawyers handle all types of medical negligence cases, including cases based on:
- Surgical errors
- Hospital negligence
- Misdiagnosis, including cancer misdiagnosis
- Failure to diagnose
- Delayed diagnosis
- Failure to recognize a patient’s symptoms or failure to treat
- Nursing negligence
- Emergency room errors
- Birth injuries
- Anesthesia errors
- Prescription drug errors
- Radiology errors
- Pharmacy errors
All medical malpractice claims are different. The standard of care in your case may be different from that of victims in similar situations. Calling an experienced attorney is the best way to learn whether you have a valid medical malpractice case.
How Much Money Is My Waldorf Medical Malpractice Case Worth?
The specific details in your case will ultimately be used to determine your case value. The more the error changes your life, the higher your compensation award is likely to be.
Our experienced attorneys will evaluate the following:
- The type of harm you have suffered
- Whether you will suffer a permanent disability
- Any long-term damage to your health
- Whether your life expectancy has changed
- Your age and general health prior to treatment
- The nature of the doctor’s mistake
- How have your earnings been impacted, considering your future earning capacity
- Your need for nursing assistance, rehabilitation, and specialized care
- Your out-of-pocket expenses
Our attorneys in Waldorf have the resources to assess your case value accurately. Often, we’ll hire experts to help with the valuation process. To get more detailed information about your case value, call for a free case review today.
What Types of Damages Are Available to Victims of Medical Malpractice in Waldorf?
Compensatory damages in Maryland include both economic damages and non-economic damages. The makeup of your compensation award will depend on the specific losses you have suffered.
Some examples of the damages you may receive include:
- Medical expenses
- The cost of future medical care
- Lost wages
- Lost earning potential
- Nursing assistance
- Rehabilitation
- Funeral expenses in fatal cases
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Humiliation
- Depression
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Diminished quality of life
- Physical disfigurement and scarring
- Reduced life expectancy
- Inability to enjoy life
- Loss of consortium
There is no limit to the amount of economic damages you can recover. All of your financial losses should be covered in your compensation award. However, under Maryland law, your non-economic damages are limited. The limit changes each year (it automatically increases by $15,000 annually). Expect that the insurance companies will try to drive down the value of your case. Hiring an experienced Waldorf medical malpractice attorney is critical to ensuring you get a fair deal.
How Much Does it Cost to Hire a Medical Malpractice Lawyer in Maryland?
Most medical malpractice lawyers, including Alpert Schreyer Personal Injury Lawyers, work on a contingency fee basis. This means that our fees are contingent on the amount of money we recover in your case. When you agree to hire us, you’ll also agree to pay a percentage of your settlement or verdict once your case is resolved. If we don’t win your case, you don’t owe us anything.
Can Maryland Shared Fault Laws Impact the Value of My Waldorf Medical Malpractice Case?
Negligent doctors and hospitals search for different reasons to avoid paying victims what they deserve. In a medical negligence case, they might blame you for failing to mitigate damages or failing to follow the doctor’s orders. Maryland follows a strict contributory negligence system. Under this system, you will lose all of your damages if you share any fault at all.
If you’re being blamed, contact an attorney quickly–you don’t want to lose your right to damages entirely under Maryland’s contributory negligence system.
Our Medical Malpractice Attorneys in Waldorf Will Fight to Recover Compensation for All of Your Injuries
Victims of medical negligence are often forced to suffer a range of severe long-term consequences. Our team at Alpert Schreyer Personal Injury Lawyers is prepared to fight to recover full compensation for all of the harm you have suffered, including:
- Development of new and more dangerous medical conditions
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Worsened underlying medical conditions
- Spinal cord injuries
- Internal bleeding
- Organ damage
- Chest injuries
- Blood clots
- Stroke
- Serious infections
- Amputations
- Paralysis
- Catastrophic injuries
- Wrongful death of a loved one
If you’re struggling in the wake of a medical error, contact our legal team for a free case evaluation today.
What Are the Most Common Causes of Medical Mistakes in Waldorf?
Some common causes of medical errors include:
- Communication problems and charting errors
- Understaffing
- Ordering the wrong diagnostic tests
- Mistaken patient identities
- Failure to supervise
- Negligent hiring practices
- Fatigued providers
- Wrong-site surgeries
- Technical failures
- Use of improper or outdated technique
- Failure to refer a patient to a specialist
- Failure to monitor patients
- Drug or alcohol use
- Patient management errors
You deserve to understand what happened to cause your suffering. Medical errors happen for all different reasons. As with any personal injury claim, medical malpractice cases are almost always based on negligent behavior.
What Do I Have to Prove to Recover Compensation for Medical Malpractice in Maryland?
Not all mistakes amount to malpractice. To win a medical malpractice lawsuit, you must prove that your doctor failed to provide care that satisfies accepted standards developed within the medical field. All medical professionals are expected to provide the level of care that a reasonable and trained provider would have under the circumstances.
In Maryland, victims must prove the following elements:
- Duty, meaning that you were a patient and the defendant was your medical provider, so they owed you a legal duty of care
- Breach of duty, meaning that the medical provider’s actions fell short of the accepted standard of care
- Causation, meaning that the breach of duty caused you to suffer some type of harm or injury that was not a foreseeable risk associated with the treatment
- Damages or identifiable losses you have suffered due to the error
Maryland law also requires victims to submit a certificate of merit. You’ll need a qualified expert to testify that the care you received departed from the standard of care.
How Long Do I Have to File a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit After a Medical Error in Maryland?
In medical malpractice cases, you must file a lawsuit before the earlier of the following two dates:
- Five years after the mistake was committed or
- Three years after the date the injury was discovered or reasonably should have been discovered
Missing the deadline has serious consequences. You’ll lose your right to compensation entirely if you wait too long. If you even suspect you were a victim, contact our lawyers so that we can protect your interests today.
Call an Experienced Waldorf Medical Malpractice Lawyer for a Free Consultation
Do you have questions about your legal options after a medical error in Maryland? An experienced Waldorf medical malpractice lawyer at Alpert Schreyer Personal Injury Lawyers can help. Call our team today at 301-932-9997 to arrange a free case review to discuss your legal options.