In Alabama, we trust our doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers with our health and lives. The last thing we expect is for them to make a mistake - especially one that causes serious injury or death. When these types of medical errors happen in an Alabama hospital, it’s important to hold the provider accountable. Not only can a medical malpractice lawsuit help you, as a victim, recover much-needed compensation, but it can also help to prevent others from experiencing the consequences of the same mistakes.
At Singleton Schreiber, our award-winning Alabama medical malpractice lawyers have the experience and resources you’ll need to take on a powerful hospital and win life-changing results.
Clients trust us because we’re local Alabama attorneys backed by national resources. As fearless advocates for the good people we represent, we’ve forced insurance companies, doctors, hospitals, and corporations to pay billions of dollars in financial awards.
We offer a free consultation, so don’t hesitate to contact our Alabama law office for help. Members of our staff are available to take your call 24 hours a day.
What is Medical Malpractice?
Healthcare providers have years of education, training, and hands-on experience. As a result, they’re held to incredibly high standards. We expect them to use the foundation they’ve built to do the very best possible for their patients.
When a healthcare provider deviates from accepted standards of care, it’s considered medical malpractice.
This might include:
- Birth injuries
- Misdiagnosing, failing to diagnose, or delaying a patient’s diagnosis
- Surgical errors, including wrong-site surgery or leaving a foreign object in a patient’s body
- Emergency room errors
- Prescription medication errors, such as dosing errors or administering the wrong medicine
- Anesthesia errors
- Brain injuries caused by lack of oxygen
- Failing to order necessary diagnostic tests
- Misinterpreting lab results
If medical malpractice causes a patient’s injury or death, the provider can be sued for negligence.
What Do I Have to Prove to Win a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit in Alabama?
Negligence is the foundation of medical malpractice lawsuits. As the plaintiff, you will have the burden of proving that your healthcare provider’s subpar medical care caused you to suffer an injury or experience the wrongful death of a family member.
Specifically, you must prove each of the following elements:
- Duty of Care: The provider owed you a duty of care because of an established provider-patient relationship
- Breach of Duty: The provider breached the standard of care because they failed to exercise the level of care, skill, and knowledge that would be expected of them in their specialty
- Causation: The provider’s conduct was the direct and proximate cause of an injury
- Damages: You’ve experienced damages as a result of the provider’s mistake
You have to be able to demonstrate that your injury is the result of actions that fell short of expected standards within the Alabama medical community. If a different provider had treated you, you likely would have escaped the harm suffered.
How Can a Medical Malpractice Attorney in Alabama Help Me?
You trusted your doctor. Now, you’re faced with the task of suing them for the injuries they’ve caused. This can be incredibly intimidating. Fortunately, it’s not something you have to do on your own.
Hiring an Alabama personal injury attorney with extensive experience handling complex medical malpractice claims can help you make the most of a difficult situation.
When you choose Singleton Schreiber, our medical malpractice attorneys will handle all aspects of your medical malpractice case:
- Conduct a prompt, independent investigation into your medical care to fully understand the level of care you received and where things deviated from expected standards
- Bring in expert witnesses and consultants to weigh in on the more complex or technical aspects of your medical care
- Obtain critical pieces of evidence during the discovery phase, which might include hospital charts, provider notes, communication between staff members, photographs, video footage, and witness statements
- Represent you during communications with the hospital, its defense attorney, and the insurance company
- Determine what your medical malpractice damages are worth
- File your medical malpractice lawsuit with the local Alabama court clerk
- Engage in meaningful negotiations with the defense to secure the best possible terms in a settlement agreement
- Explain your rights and help you make important decisions about how to resolve your claim
- Bring your medical malpractice lawsuit to trial if you aren’t offered a fair settlement
It’s important to ask for help as soon as you discover you’ve been injured or suspect that your doctor made a critical mistake. In Alabama, a two-year statute of limitations applies to most medical negligence actions. You’ll lose the right to demand compensation from your doctor if you don’t file your claim on time.
What Compensation Can I Recover If I’ve Been Hurt Because of a Medical Error?
As the victim of medical negligence in Alabama, you can request economic and non-economic damages from your provider.
Known collectively as compensatory damages, these can help you cover injury-related expenses and deal with harder-to-value trauma such as:
- Hospitalization, medication, medical devices and equipment, surgery, and other current medical bills
- Reasonably necessary costs of future medical care, including rehabilitation and therapy
- Out-of-pocket costs, including the costs of medical travel
- Nursing assistance
- Funeral expenses if a medical error is fatal
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Physical disfigurement and scarring
- Reduced quality of life
- Inconvenience
- Loss of consortium
- Chronic physical pain
An Alabama jury can also award punitive damages if there’s evidence that a doctor acted intentionally or with malice, or that they displayed a conscious disregard for your safety.
Call Our Alabama Medical Malpractice Attorneys For Help Today
Whether you’ve suffered broken bones, a spinal cord injury, a brain injury, paralysis, or other serious injuries because of a medical error in Alabama, don’t hesitate to call Singleton Schreiber for help. The doctor, nurse, pharmacist, anesthesiologist, or provider who made the mistake has to be held accountable. Our Alabama medical malpractice attorneys want to help you get the justice you deserve.
We’re award-winning trial attorneys with a proven ability to help injury victims move forward after traumatic events. Our case results include over $3 Billion in financial awards.
Reach out to our law office in Alabama to learn more. There’s no charge for your initial case evaluation.
