Looking for a medical malpractice attorney for a consultation

Hi there,

I'm sorry for her pain and for her experience. Is it CRPS?

Medmal attorneys are very picky because they take cases on contingency (ie, they get a cut of the award if there is one) and the laws heavily skew toward the doctors so the cases are typically very hard to win. You need an expert witness to testify that the care your daughter received is "below the standard of care" and the awards are capped at $250k for pain and suffering (unlimited for loss of income, etc) in California. If you can go to an attorney with an "expert witness" (it should be a medical professional in the same specialty as the doctor you believe committed the malpractice), that really makes your case more compelling to them because they will (typically) first look through your daughter's medical records and determine (either themselves or they have a medical professional on staff) if there is a case so there's a lot of cost up front for them to determine if there is a case or not. You can also offer to pay for an expert witness to look through the records but that may be $5k-10k depending on how complicated your daughter's case is. So also get all her medical records so that you're ready to send it to the attorney; do it before you approach the attorneys so you don't have any delays. Some attorneys just ask you some questions and have someone review the answers so also be prepared to answer any questions about the case.

My personal theory is that they like cases where someone (young) dies or is severely maimed for life and it's really egregious. Thankfully it doesn't sound like this happened to your daughter though I do know that "constant pain" is not minor. I found it really hard to find a medmal attorney (I also had a missed diagnosis and was in constant pain) but eventually did and eventually won my case. But I talked to a lot of attorneys who flat out told me that they didn't see this as a "250 case" (ie, worth at least $250k for the pain and suffering) even though I believed otherwise. I eventually found an attorney but only after I offered to pay for an expert witness to review the case

Was your daughter's care through Kaiser or similar system? If so they may have an arbitration clause and there are attorneys who specialize in those cases

Also - remember that you have a time limit from when you can file; I believe it's one year from the date that you first found out about the error or some longer time for when the error first occurred.

There aren't many medmal attorneys out there so it's pretty easy to find them (either yelp or google). But I would definitely try to either find an expert witness or be prepared to offer to pay for one. The expert witness is really the key; you really don't have a case unless you can find one.

In summary, I would first (a) get all your daughter's medical records in your hands (2) be prepared to answer questions about it (3) try to find an expert witness (it's easiest to do this if you know a physician personally; I wouldn't try to make an appointment with a clinician and get them to help you unless you have a personal relationship -- most clinicians are unwilling to testify against a fellow clinician, even if they don't know each other) -- before you approach an attorney. And though you may feel very emotional about this, I would focus on the facts when I talk to an attorney.

Hope this helps.

Unfortunately there are very few doctors that will testify against another doctor and that is what you need to win a case.Unless it is a very obvious case of malpractice you probably will have a hard time finding a lawyer to take the case.This is what happened to me.I do not want to be discouraging but am just saying be ready for this and do not get your hopes up too much.I hope it works out for you.

If it is indeed CRPS, you will want to get into some treatment right away. I am a sufferer  for 5+ years. It is a neurological pain disorder brought on by an injury, accident, sometimes very minor. I describe the pain as  being lit on fire and .....putting it out with a baseball bat. Yes, it can get that bad. I saw 12 docs before a diagnosis, so that is common in rare, orphan diseases. I could have sued, naturally, but I focused on searching out support, off-label treatments --all with the goal of remission. Since there are no treatments and few doctors who even will treat you, your best bet is to see a pain doc/pain clinic - they have seen it all. Honestly, for me, suing them would not make them better doctors nor will it bring me peace. Furthermore, they will still be unable to handle chronic, long-term illness as this is the case for CRPS/RSD. I had to seek everyone out -of-network  (& out of pocket) including integrative medical clinics, osteopathy, and a host of others on my team to get me functioning again. Health first, then if you have the energy, try and go after them. It is expensive being sick in America.  Sending healing vibes to you~