If you were hurt due to the negligence of a medical provider here in Virginia, and thinking about hiring a malpractice attorney, you must cost of pursuing your claim. After all, a malpractice attorney cannot take away your pain. All they can do is try to compensate you for the injuries you sustained. Therefore, a malpractice lawsuit is primarily a financial transaction.
All malpractice cases are risky.
Practicing medicine is complicated. Doctors and other providers train for years to develop skills that are important for our society. While there are certainly jerks in the profession, most medical providers went into medicine to help people. Generally, the public shares a healthy skepticism of the medical profession. But they also trust them.
On the flip side, the insurance industry has done a great job selling the public on the need for “Tort Reform.” Most people believe that there are too many lawsuits in America, most injury lawsuits are fake, and let’s not get started on how the public views plaintiff’s lawyers.
Of course, at Abrenio Law, we hold different views. But you must be aware that juries come to cases with this baggage.
Malpractice cases will be defended.
Doctors have egos and don’t like blemishes on their records. When doctors settle cases, they must report their settlement to a centralized databank. What is more, doctors likely have clauses in their malpractice insurance policy that require them to sign off on any settlement. Given this, you must expect that your malpractice case will be defended, and likely must go to court.
Malpractice awards are “capped.”
Virginia has created a cap on the award of damages an injury victim can receive if they are successful in their Virginia malpractice case. Click here to see the cap that is imposed upon your claim, depending on when you were injured.
Thinking of it another way, if you seriously injure someone with your car, there is no limitation on the award that victim may obtain against you. However, if your doctor seriously injures you, they are protected by our legislature on how much money you may receive.
Given this cap, most doctors obtain insurance policies just above the cap. Therefore, if you win against them, they do not pay your award, the insurance company does. This is yet another reason why you must understand that your malpractice case will likely have to be litigated. Because the doctors don’t even have to pay if they lose.
Medical malpractice cases cost a lot of money.
Given this, if you seek to pursue your malpractice case, you must understand the high costs involved in litigating your case. While every case is different, and every attorney charges their own rate, here’s an idea of what you can expect. Keep in mind that these costs will come from any settlement or judgement you receive in your claim.
- Attorney’s Fees. Medical malpractice attorneys typically charge “contingency fees.” This means that you don’t pay money up front. However, they get a cut of funds you receive if successful in your claim. At Abrenio Law, we typically charge around 40% of your award. While this is certainly a high amount, should we agree to help you, we also carry the risk of receiving $0 is the claim proves unsuccessful.
- Litigation Costs. When litigating any civil case, litigation costs can accumulate quickly. These costs typically include the fee for filing the lawsuit, depositions and videographers, vendors to assist at trial, and additional costs to support your litigation. These costs can easily climb into the 10s of thousands of dollars.
- Expert Witness Fees. For malpractice costs, expert witness fees are typically very high. These are the fees for hiring doctors and other medical providers on your behalf to explain to the jury why the defendants you are suing are liable for your injuries. In other words, they will explain how the defendants “breached the standard of care” that should have been met in your case. There are many technical requirements that your experts must meet to be qualified to testify. And they must be very aware of your case. Given that, expert witness fees can easily be $50,000-$100,000, or more, depending on the complexity of your case.
- Health Insurance Reimbursements and outstanding bills. Depending on the type of health insurance you have, your health insurance may have a right to be reimbursed for the medical care paid for on your behalf. If you have a lot of medical bills stemming from your case, just be aware that a large portion of that may have to be paid back to the health insurer if you are successful in your case. Also, if you have any outstanding bills from your care, those are typically paid from your settlement funds too.
You must ask yourself, “how much money will I see from my claim?”
As you can see, if successful in your case, there will be a lot of costs and fees that come from your settlement funds right off the top. Therefore, we truly urge folks to consider the “net value” of their claim. Or the amount of money they will see in their pocket if they are successful. Because, in our view, what they stand to see in their own pocket is what really matters.
Medical malpractice happens all the time. Doctors, nurses, and other providers are human and make countless mistakes. They have a lot of pressure in their daily schedules, and that often times means harm to the patient. However, they are also in a system that provides a lot of protection if they mess up.
So, at Abrenio Law, we typically require cases where folks are catastrophically injured before we will take on a case. That’s because, unless the amount of money that they client stands to see is significant, we think the risk involved is simply too high to justify the cost. Also, we require that the claimed malpractice must be clear and provable. Stated another way, unless you have a good understanding of what your medical provider did wrong, we will likely not accept your case.