{"id":30238,"date":"2013-11-12T05:09:25","date_gmt":"2013-11-12T05:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wagners1.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/what-is-medical-malpractice-and-can-i-pursue-legal-action\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T16:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T16:24:14","slug":"what-is-medical-malpractice-and-can-i-pursue-legal-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wagners.co\/es\/blog\/what-is-medical-malpractice-and-can-i-pursue-legal-action\/","title":{"rendered":"What is medical malpractice and can I pursue legal action?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A successful <a href=\"https:\/\/wagners.co\/medical-malpractice-lawyer\/\">medical malpractice<\/a> case requires that the Plaintiff prove the following criteria:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Standard of care;<\/li>\n<li>Breach of the standard of care;<\/li>\n<li>Causation; and<\/li>\n<li>Damages<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><u><strong>Standard of care<\/strong><\/u><br \/>\n<u>The Plaintiff must establish what the standard expected of a reasonably competent doctor, nurse or other health care professional is under the circumstances.<\/u> Though a healthcare professional is not necessarily liable for all the harms a patient may experience, he or she may be liable if he or she provided care to a patient that is improper, unskilled or negligent. For a successful medical malpractice suit, a Plaintiff must prove that a healthcare professional breached the standard of care by doing, or not doing, something a reasonably competent health care professional would have done. An error in judgment is not always negligent: care must be <em>below<\/em> the expected standard.<\/p>\n<p>When a health care professional has breached his or her duty of care by providing care that is substandard (i.e. improper, unskilled or negligent), a Plaintiff must prove that breach is what caused, or materially contributed to, the injuries the patient suffered.<\/p>\n<p>Substandard medical care can cause serious injury to a patient. Examples of such injuries are as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/wagners.co\/cerebral-palsy-birth-injury-lawyer-halifax\/\">Cerebral palsy (CP)<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Erb's palsy<\/li>\n<li>Shoulder dystocia<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/wagners.co\/infant-brain-damage\/\">Infant brain damage and hypoxic brain injury<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/wagners.co\/surgical-errors-lawyer-halifax\/\">Surgical errors<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis of cancer, stroke, or heart attack<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/wagners.co\/pathology-errors-class-action-lawsuit\/\">Pathology and radiology errors<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Death<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It important to note that even though a breach of the standard of care has occurred, if this breach does not cause a patient\u2019s injury, or if a patient\u2019s injury was inevitable regardless of the care provided, a case for medical malpractice will not be viable.<\/p>\n<p>In order for causation to be established, a patient\u2019s injury must have been <em>caused<\/em> by the improper, unskilled or negligent treatment provided by a health care professional.<\/p>\n<p>Damages is the last of the four components required to establish a claim for medical malpractice. Some examples of damages in a medical malpractice claim are as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Medical care and expenses<\/li>\n<li>Loss of earnings or earning capacity<\/li>\n<li>Pain and suffering<\/li>\n<li>Loss of enjoyment of life<\/li>\n<li>Loss of housekeeping ability<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Considerable damage must be shown to be the result of negligent care that caused the subsequent injury to a patient in order to establish damages in a claim for medical malpractice.<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Can I pursue legal action?<\/u><\/strong><br \/>\nEach of the above noted criteria must be established on a balance of probabilities for a <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" title=\"Chapter 1 \u2013 The Anatomy of a Medical Malpractice Case\" href=\"https:\/\/wagners.co\/blog\/the-anatomy-of-a-medical-malpractice-case\/\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"1047809\">medical malpractice case<\/a> to be successful. Establishing only a breach of the standard of care and\/or causation alone is insufficient.<\/p>\n<p><u><strong>Our process<\/strong><\/u><br \/>\nWe are a personal <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" title=\"Birth Injury Lawyer Halifax\" href=\"https:\/\/wagners.co\/birth-injury-lawyer\/\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"1045142\">injury law firm<\/a> based in Halifax who represent individuals throughout Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island who have been injured or harmed by medical malpractice or doctor and hospital errors.<\/p>\n<p>Our experienced <a href=\"https:\/\/wagners.co\/our-team\/\">medical malpractice lawyers<\/a> are adept at understanding the complex requirements of pursuing a claim for <a href=\"https:\/\/wagners.co\/medical-malpractice-lawyer\/\">medical malpractice<\/a>. Our staff are readily available to speak with you about your <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" title=\"Frequently Asked Questions For Personal Injury Claims In The Maritime Provinces\" href=\"https:\/\/wagners.co\/frequently-asked-questions\/\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"858693\">personal injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>By way of an initial consultation, we will provide you with our opinion as to whether or not you may have cause to pursue a claim for medical malpractice. There is no charge for our consultation, and we work on a contingency fee basis should we pursue a case on your behalf.<\/p>\n<p>If you have been injured by medical malpractice, we encourage you to <a href=\"https:\/\/wagners.co\/contact-us\/\">contact us<\/a> today.<\/p>\n<p>Do You Have a Claim? Call for a free consultation 1-800-465-8794.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A successful medical malpractice case requires that the Plaintiff prove the following criteria: Standard of care; Breach of the standard [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-injury"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wagners.co\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wagners.co\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wagners.co\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wagners.co\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wagners.co\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wagners.co\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wagners.co\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wagners.co\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wagners.co\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}