This seems like a simple question, and yet our clients are sometimes surprised by the legal definition of medical malpractice, also called medical negligence. Medical negligence is a subfield of personal injury law. In most cases, personal injury law involves determining the legal negligence of one party, who then owes damages to the harmed party. This seems straightforward, but medical malpractice is a bit more complicated than that. There are four elements that must be proven for a plaintiff to be successful with a medical malpractice case. These are as follows:

• Duty of care – Our medical negligence attorneys can demonstrate that your treating provider owed you a duty of care. In other words, there was a provider-patient relationship.
• Breach – We’ll then demonstrate that your provider breached that duty of care by violating the widely accepted standard of care. The widely accepted standard of care is what a similarly trained healthcare provider would have done under similar circumstances. For instance, if the vast majority of Ob/Gyn providers would have performed a C-section upon noticing signs of fetal distress, and your provider did not do so, then your provider could be said to have breached the standard of care.
• Injury – The third element is the presence of a physical injury. We’ll demonstrate that your injuries were the direct result of the provider’s breach of the standard of care.
• Damages – Lastly, we’ll show the jury how your damages (losses) resulted from your physical injuries, which were a direct result of the provider’s actions.