What Do Medical Malpractice Attorneys Do?

For people who love law and also have an interest in healthcare, medical malpractice is the perfect match.  Medical malpractice cases occur due to mistakes, birth traumas, medical misdiagnoses, anesthesia mistakes, delay in treating a diagnosed illness or failure.  Medical malpractice lawyers litigate lawsuits based on the conduct of physicians, nurses, therapists and other medical specialists and health care providers.

Job Function

Job functions specific to a medical malpractice lawyer include:

• Dealing together with medical specialists to come up with case reports, specialist reports, and testimony to support the plaintiff’s case.
• Accepting depositions of medical specialists, medical staff and other third parties (along with the plaintiff and defendant).
• Collecting and assessing medical records.
• Setting up separate medical examinations (IMEs) to acquire an objective assessment of the state of the injured plaintiff.
• Performing medical study having to do with the plaintiff’s condition.
• Working together with legal nurse advisors to examine case worth, review medical records, decode physician’s notes and accompany the plaintiff to IMEs.
• A medical malpractice attorney frequently specializes in certain kinds of medical malpractice cases like birth accidents, surgical mistakes, nursing home abuse, or malpractice.

Training And Education

A medical malpractice lawyer must finish their undergraduate degree and law school.  This adds up to seven years of schooling after high-school.  After completing law school, the bar exam must be taken in the states that he/she wishes to practice.  It is also a good idea to get board certification from a certifying organization like the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys.

Salary

Medical malpractice attorneys earn an average salary of $151,000 a year.  Most medical malpractice attorneys work for hospitals and earn more than the average salary mentioned.

Like many personal injury lawyers, many medical malpractice attorneys charge on a contingency fee basis. Under a contingent fee agreement, the lawyer requires a percentage of the plaintiff’s net recovery.

As stated by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), medical malpractice jury trials exude high median damage awards.  In reality, awards from medical malpractice jury trials are 17 times larger than the total awards in tort jury trials.

If you have a passion for the law and also are interested in health care, you should consider a career as a medical malpractice attorney.