If You Accept My Daughter’s Medical Malpractice Case, Will You Guarantee She Will Receive Money For Her Medical Bills? December 11, 2009

The Florida Bar prohibits lawyers from guaranteeing results. However, even absent that prohibition I would not guarantee anything, especially in a medical malpractice case. Studies show that medical malpractice cases are among the most difficult type of case to win in court, second only to products liability cases. Depending on the study, only 27-36 percent of medical malpractice plaintiffs win in court. Plaintiffs’ winning percentage in all other tort cases is 52 percent.

To make matters worse for medical malpractice plaintiffs, of those 27-36 percent of courthouse winners, fewer that half receive any money at all. So only 13.5-18 percent of medical malpractice victims who win their case in court receive any money to compensate them for their medical bills and other damages. That I why I will never guarantee that I can recover money to help pay a medical malpractice victim’s medical bills.

Medical malpractice cases are some of the toughest around. That’s why we accept very few of them for representation. They are so expensive to litigate that it is not cost-effective for victims to bring lawsuits in all but the most serious cases. I’ve seen many cases with legitimate, substantial injuries caused by negligence that I decided not to accept because I did not think that I could recover enough money to cover the costs of bringing the case. I always feel badly explaining to people that I’m not saying their injury is trivial or small (it never is to them) but that it is just not catastrophic enough to warrant filing suit in this harsh medical malpractice climate.

Every so often though, we do accept a medical malpractice case. The only strategy in a medical malpractice suit (and most lawsuits for that matter) that affords a victim with any degree of control over the outcome is to settle out of court before trial. If you go to trial, you are submitting your fate to a group of strangers whose only qualification to render judgment on your case is that they hold driver’s licenses.

Whether a malpractice case settles or goes to trial, it is tough road to hoe. Make sure you work with an attorney you trust to handle your case.