St. Petersburg Medical Malpractice Attorney

Our St Petersburg medical malpractice lawyers have extensive experience with Florida medical malpractice cases. If a doctor injures a Pinellas County resident, we will fight to ensure that this healthcare provider doesn’t make the same decision in regard to another patient. We will go into your medical negligence case with your best interests at heart. Our lawyers will negotiate for financial reimbursement as well as non-economic damages.

Non-economic damages are paid based on your pain and suffering. We will showcase exactly what this doctor’s actions did not only to your physical health but also to your mental and emotional health.

The Florida Supreme Court recently ruled to eliminate the damage caps on pain and suffering. Previously, these damage caps only allowed pain and suffering settlements up to $1 million. However, Florida law now recognizes a higher settlement for the devastating costs of more serious cases. We will not only seek to recover the costs of medical expenses but also non-economic costs you suffered as a result of negligence.

Our St Petersburg medical malpractice attorneys are ranked among the best in the Tampa Bay area. Whether your medical malpractice lawsuit entails surgical errors, wrong medication, failure to diagnose, medical negligence, defective medical devices, medication errors, or wrongful death, we are committed to helping you get the settlement you deserve. While most medical malpractice lawsuits do make it to trial, we’re prepared to take your case to trial if need be.

Recent data shows that 100,000 Americans die every year due to medical malpractice. Even more people sustained a permanent injury due to medical negligence.

If you trusted a doctor in St. Petersburg to treat you for an ailment, whether it required a simple diagnosis or a complicated operation, you put your health in that medical professional’s hands. You expected your doctor to be looking out for your best interests, your health, and your well-being. Unfortunately, there are doctors you simply can’t trust — and if you’re here, you may have come across one in the Tampa Bay area.

It’s important to know what steps you can take to file medical malpractice claims. If you have a permanent injury or if a loved one tragically passed away due to a hospital’s negligence, you need to consult our lawyers today.

The success of any legal matter depends on the unique circumstances of each case, therefore, we cannot guarantee particular results for future clients.

Recent data shows that 100,000 Americans die every year due to medical malpractice. Even more, people sustained a permanent personal injury due to healthcare provider negligence. If you were injured or a loved one was lost by wrongful death at St. Petersburg General, Johns Hopkins All Children’s, St. Anthony’s, Bayfront Health, Northside Hospital, or another hospital in St. Petersburg, it’s time to schedule a free case evaluation with our St. Pete’s malpractice lawyers.

We want you to have all the information you need to understand the process of filing medical malpractice claims. Let’s first review what you should know before you schedule your free consultation so that you’re better prepared to speak to us about the specifics of your medical malpractice case.

Understanding Medical Malpractice Terms

Florida law has an entire chapter dedicated to describing the definitions, processes, and restrictions of malpractice cases.

Florida State Statute 766.102 states: “In any action for recovery of damages based on the death or personal injury of any person in which it is alleged that such death or injury resulted from the negligence of a health care provider as defined in s. 766.202, the claimant shall have the burden of proving by the greater weight of evidence that the alleged actions of the health care provider represented a breach of the prevailing professional standard of care for that health care provider. The prevailing professional standard of care for a given health care provider shall be that level of care, skill, and treatment which, in light of all relevant surrounding circumstances, is recognized as acceptable and appropriate by reasonably prudent similar healthcare providers.”

Basically, this means that the legal definition of medical malpractice is when a doctor, a nurse, or a hospital fails to provide sufficient medical treatment and instead causes a new or an aggravated injury as a result, including wrongful death. So, what does this mean for medical malpractice claims? Before you hire a St. Petersburg medical malpractice attorney, make sure that you understand these key terms:

Medical Negligence

Medical negligence is the act or lack thereof of medical attention or treatment for a condition or ailment that deviates from the acceptable standard of care. Medical negligence is the heart of a malpractice case. Therefore, all of the information that you have which proves your doctor, nurse, or hospital did not meet the legal standard of care will be crucial to proving malpractice.

Standard of Care

If a medical professional with a similar background can describe how he or she would have approached the situation differently, this is considered the standard of care. If you can find multiple expert medical witnesses to testify that they would have taken a different medical approach to avoid personal injury, this is excellent for your malpractice case.

Statute of Limitations

There is an allotted amount of time that you, as the patient, have to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. Depending on your personal injury or the severity of the incident, there are different regulations. Make sure to check the statute of limitations with our medical malpractice lawyers in your free consultation. In the state of Florida, you must file a lawsuit within two years of discovering the injury.

Now that you know the basic terms for your medical malpractice case, let’s discuss the process. What steps will our lawyers take to get the settlement that you deserve?

Proving Medical Negligence And Malpractice

Our law firm will need to gather information from the St. Petersburg hospital where you received care so we can be able to prove that medical malpractice occured. And then we will start with an investigation of the incident, talking to any doctors, nurses, or hospital staff who were present at the time of your treatment or diagnosis. Our law firm is here to help you get the retribution that you deserve and to do that we must talk with all possible witnesses. We will gather testimonies from other reputable doctors and medical professionals to build your case. We want the best possible statements on the standard of care to prove your doctor’s medical negligence.

Once your St. Petersburg medical malpractice lawyer gathers witness statements, they will begin assessing your healthcare and medical records.

We will also ensure that we have an expert financial witness to testify about your lost wages due to the personal injury or your loved one’s wrongful death. Being out of work is a serious issue, and you also need compensation for your medical costs.

Did we say medical bills? Those are piling up, we’re sure, but Denmon Pearlman’s medical malpractice attorneys are on your side. We take care of negotiations with the insurance adjusters so that you pay the least possible amount upfront before the settlement. You shouldn’t have to endure a heated argument with your insurance company after your doctor gave you or your loved one a personal injury. Let one of our experienced medical malpractice attorney bite the bullet and take it on for you.

Our lawyers do everything we can to keep your legal malpractice case out of Pinellas County courts. However, if we see an opportunity for a much larger settlement, we will advise you to pursue a trial. If you’re worried about the courtroom proceedings, we are the ones to have on your side. Other lawyers don’t want to oppose our aggressive medical negligence lawyers. Our approach calls out your doctor’s medical error with every fact we have to put into evidence. We will fight for your rights because no doctor should get away with personal injury, medical malpractice, or wrongful death.

Call our law firm’s medical malpractice lawyers in St. Petersburg to schedule a free consultation. We’ll discuss your specific medical malpractice lawsuit in detail in our free 60-minute session.

So, let’s do some quick math. For example, let’s say a claim resolves for $25,000 with a lawyer.

Let’s assume that the average claim a medical malpractice lawyer settled for 400% more than for which a valid medical malpractice claim would have settled without an attorney. In this example, the individual would have received a $6,250 settlement (before the medical bills are paid!) without a lawyer.

The attorney would take a settlement fee of $8,325, leaving $16,675 in gross recovery for the client (before any medical bills are paid). In this example, the net recovery for someone who works with a personal injury attorney is on average $10,000 more than what that person would have received without a lawyer.