With all these medical advancements that have been made in our time, we expect our care to be perfect. While most deaths or complications happen because nothing can be done, there are times when our doctors and other medical professionals fail us by making mistakes and accidents leading to dire results. When this occurs, there can be a lot of financial and moral loss, to cover this you can sue for medical malpractice.
What The California Law Says
In 1975 there have been law changes that allow for a ceiling on how much money there can be claimed for medical malpractice. This law is known as MICRA and previous to the amount of money you could claim way unlimited. Currently for any damage that has been incurred in a non-financial manner is $250,000. This could be anything like emotional damage or physical damage. The thing about non-economic damages is that they cannot be quantifiable, like economic damages can be. Economic damages are medical fees, income loss, and future earning capacity deprecation.
This policy is often criticized especially if there has been the death of a young child or an old-aged adult. This is because you cannot sue for earning loss or loss of capacity and get a number larger than $250,000. After all, a young child or the elderly do not have these.
MICRA also capped economic damages in 1975, without accounting for inflation. MICRA has also capped economic earnings at $250,000. This now would be $1.1 million. This shows how much MICRA is failing the citizens in the state of California that are suing for medical malpractice. It requires extreme amounts of reform.
Because of the rising costs of representation by medical malpractice lawyers in California, and the stagnant amount of money that can be paid out in compensation in the state of California people are becoming more and more apprehensive about filing for medical malpractice.
What To Do When Faced With Medical Malpractice
When faced with a severe injury of a loved one or even their death it is hard regardless, but for people who have faced this due to medical malpractice, it can take an even bigger emotional toll. It is even more important at this time to make sure that that you are strong physically and mentally, especially if you are planning or filing a lawsuit.
It is important to go through everything that happened and document it all and gather all your evidence. This is because there may be things that all medical practitioners do not notice. Once this is all done you need to contact a medical malpractice attorney in California to fight your case.
The effects of medical malpractice can be traumatizing and can turn out to be quite a complicated experience in the state of California. Find out your best options for a medical malpractice lawsuit in California by contacting Licata & Yeremenko, A Professional Law Corporation. Call our offices at 818-783-5757 to get a free consultation.