Phoenix Medical Malpractice Lawyer
Attorneys for Negligence and Injury

Yes. Medical malpractice is an epidemic in the United States. Preventable medical errors kill more than 400,000 people per year. That means, every day, 1,100 people have their lives cut short by medical malpractice. Estimates suggest, at least another 1,000 people are injured every day from their health care provider’s negligence. Surprisingly, that only leads to around 20,000 malpractice lawsuits each year. This disparity is largely because of the legal hurdles facing a medical malpractice lawyer and people’s fear of taking on a powerful corporation.

In the United States, nearly 1,000,000 Americans suffer serious injury or death every year due to medical malpractice. In Arizona, there are over 150 medical malpractice payments by physicians, annually, totaling tens of millions of dollars. Indeed, the American Medical Association reports that 31% of all physicians have been sued at some point in their careers, with certain specialties having an even greater rate of lawsuits.

Our Phoenix medical malpractice lawyer carefully selects the cases we pursue. Case selection is largely dictated by the investment our firm anticipates, both financial and time. Medical malpractice claims are complicated and consume a lot of our time; therefore, we limit the number of cases we are litigating at any one time. Additionally, because of the hurdles Arizona’s legislators created, these cases are very expensive to pursue, often costing several hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Additionally, our Phoenix medical malpractice lawyer does not take cases unless all indications suggest a jury would award enough money to sufficiently compensate you after we are paid for our time and the hundreds of thousands of dollars we advance in costs, as well as payment of any liens or reimbursement claims. When you hire Gage Mathers Law Group, your lawyer wants to make sure you receive a fair amount to compensate you for your economic losses and non-economic damages (e.g., pain and suffering, mental anguish, impairment, emotional and psychological injury, and disfigurement).

You can read more about what do medical lawyers do to maximize the outcome of your personal injury case.

Yes. You will probably have to file a lawsuit to get justice because the health care providers who commit medical errors and injure patients rarely admit they made a mistake. It takes brave citizens, with the help of an experienced attorney, to hold these health care providers accountable for their malpractice.

Our Phoenix medical malpractice lawyers have decades of experience investigating and litigating medical malpractice cases. We help Arizona residents, like you, obtain the maximum compensation you deserve after suffering life-changing injuries.

As you will see from the next FAQ, you can file a medical malpractice lawsuit on your own; however, you are much better off hiring a lawyer who focuses on this specialized area of law. Our team has dedicated years to helping victims like you obtain money for injury-related medical expenses, lost wages, and non-economic damages like pain, suffering, scarring, and emotional injuries.

If a pre-litigation settlement is not reached, the claim proceeds through our civil justice system, usually in the superior court. To initiate a medical malpractice claim in Arizona, a Complaint and Summons must be prepared and served on the named defendants.

The complaint should include details about each plaintiff and defendant, legal authority, jurisdiction, a concise factual basis for each claim, and a specific demand for relief. A civil summons informs defendants of the lawsuit, and they have 20 days to file an Answer upon receipt. The Answer should address your allegations and list any affirmative defenses.

Arizona law mandates disclosures, including the factual basis and legal theory of each claim, trial witnesses and their testimony, persons who gave statements, expert witness details, and relevant document lists.

As the injured person, you have a burden of proof. You must prove three things. In basic terms, you must prove: (1) the health care provider either did something they should not have (negligent act) or did not do something they should have (negligent omission), (2) that the negligent conduct caused an injury, and (3) your damages. A bad or suboptimal outcome does not mean the health care provider committed malpractice.

Medical Negligence

Doctors and other health care providers have a duty to their patients, to provide care and treatment that complies with the appropriate “standard of care.” This means the health care provider must exercise that degree of care, skill, and learning expected of a reasonable, prudent health care provider in the profession or class to which he belongs within the state acting in the same or similar circumstances. If the health care provider fails to acts as a reasonably prudent provider under the circumstances, then that health care provider failed to perform his or her duty and was negligent. This must be proven by presenting a medical expert within the same specialty as the health care provider.

Medical Causation

Medical negligence becomes medical malpractice when the doctor’s negligent treatment causes injury to the patient; that is, makes the patient’s condition worse, causes unreasonable and unexpected complications, necessitates additional medical treatment, or causes death. The key is that the doctor’s specific negligent act is causally linked to the injury or death. This again must be proven through expert testimony. There are many ways that health care providers can negligently cause injuries. For instance:

• misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose
• surgical errors, including unnecessary or incorrect surgery
• surgical errors, including leaving things inside the patient’s body after surgery
• premature discharge
• failure to order appropriate tests or to act on results
• failure to follow up
• medication errors
• poor infection control, including potentially fatal infections acquired in the hospital
• general negligence

Medical Malpractice Damages

Finally, you must prove the injury led to specific damages. Even if it is clear that the health care provider was negligent, our Phoenix medical malpractice lawyer cannot help you sue if you did not suffer any harm.

Collectible medical malpractice damages may include:

• physical pain,
• disability,
• mental anguish and suffering,
• past and future medical bills, and
• lost wages and earning capacity.

Arizona has no caps on damages in medical malpractice cases.

Unlike many other states, Arizona’s constitution prohibits caps on damages. That means juries are free to award you as much money as they believe you are entitled to based on the facts of your personal injury case.

Our Phoenix medical malpractice lawyer helps victims of medical malpractice in Phoenix and throughout Arizona fight for full and fair compensation. We represent people who have suffered injuries in doctors’ offices, hospitals, and other medical facilities throughout Arizona.

Defendants in medical malpractice cases can be individual health care providers, like doctors and nurse practitioners, or business entities, like hospitals and medical practices. Hospital defendants can include:

• Abrazo Arizona Heart Hospital
• Abrazo Arrowhead Campus
• Abrazo Central Campus (formerly Phoenix Baptist Hospital)
• Abrazo Scottsdale Campus (formerly Paradise Valley Hospital)
• Abrazo West Campus (formerly West Valley Hospital)
• Banner Baywood Medical Center
• Banner Boswell Medical Center (formerly Boswell Memorial Hospital)
• Banner Casa Grande Medical Center (formerly Casa Grande Regional Medical Center)
• Banner Del E Webb Medical Center
• Banner Desert Medical Center (originally Desert Samaritan, aka “Desert Sam”)
• Banner Estrella Medical Center
• Banner Gateway Medical Center
• Banner Ironwood Medical Center
• Banner Thunderbird Medical Center (originally Thunderbird Samaritan Medical Center)
• Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix
• Chandler Regional Medical Center
• Dignity Health General Hospital
• Flagstaff Medical Center
• Gilbert Hospital
• Havasu Regional Medical Center
• HonorHealth Deer Valley Medical Center
• HonorHealth John C. Lincoln Medical Center
• HonorHealth Scottsdale Memorial Osborn Medical Center
• HonorHealth Scottsdale Shea Medical Center
• HonorHealth Scottsdale Thompson Peak Medical Center
• Kingman Regional Medical Center
• Mayo Clinic Arizona
• Mercy Gilbert Medical Center
• Phoenix Children’s Hospital
• St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center
• Tempe St. Luke’s Hospital
• Tucson Medical Center
• Verde Valley Medical Center
• Yavapai Regional Medical Center
• Yuma Regional Medical Center

Impediments to a medical malpractice claim. In most cases, you must prove these three elements by a preponderance of the evidence. Arizona’s lawmakers raised the burden of proof in cases involving emergency room care and emergency medical services to clear and convincing evidence. In addition to raising the burden of proof, Arizona’s lawmakers have worked hard to interfere with your constitutional rights and impede your ability to hold health care providers accountable. These obstacles may limit your right to sue, limit your right to obtain full and fair compensation, and limit your right to the truth about what happened to you.

Medical malpractice cases rarely, if ever, resolve without hiring a lawyer. Even after hiring a lawyer, negligent doctors are reluctant to admit their mistakes. Most negligent doctors have egos and cannot accept that they made a preventable error. They often will not allow their liability insurance carriers to settle their case without litigation–most Arizona doctors have $1 million or more in liability insurance coverage, which includes a provision that does not allow the case to settle without their written consent.

Medical malpractice cases are very expensive. Expert fees are the largest cost of medical malpractice cases, usually driving the total costs of these cases over $125,000 and, in some cases, as high as $250,000. Doctors, especially local doctors, are not lining up to gratuitously provide their expert services to victims of medical negligence. Just the opposite. Most experts charge from $500/hr to $1,000/hr for their time, and local doctors will not testify against their colleagues.

Historically, medical malpractice laws were designed to accomplish certain specific social objectives, including addressing poor quality care, fairly compensating patients for injuries resulting from negligence, and imposing justice in a manner that would make future occurrences less likely. Normally, medical malpractice lawyers deal with the aftermath.

Medical Malpractice victims in Phoenix can pursue compensatory damages. Compensatory damages include both economic losses and non-economic damages.

Economic damages are financial losses you’ve suffered as a result of the medical negligence, such as:

• Bills for medical care, including hospital bills, ambulance bills, rehabilitation, and therapies.
• Lost wages, past and future.
• Decreased earning capacity.
• Out-of-pocket expenses.

Non-economic damages are the types of losses you suffer that do not have a price tag, such as:

• Pain, discomfort, and suffering.
• Disability.
• Disfigurement and scarring.
• Anxiety.
• Mental anguish and emotional distress.
• Decreased enjoyment of life.
• Loss of love, care, and other pleasures of a marital or parent-child relationship.
• Punitive damages may also be available, but only in rare cases.

Our lawyer does not have a crystal ball and cannot predict the future. Case values vary greatly based on numerous factors, some of which are:

• The nature of the negligence or recklessness;
• The nature and severity of the injury;
• How much medical care your injuries require;
• Economic and non-economic damages;
• How much of an impact your injuries have on your life;
• The amount and strength of evidence you provide to prove your claims;
• The strength of your medical records and overall evidence;
• The strength of your experts and witnesses;
• Your age;
• The quality of your medical malpractice lawyer;
• The medical malpractice laws and regulations in your jurisdiction; and
• Insurance coverage.

The average settlement payout for medical malpractice cases, by severity of outcome, are:

• Brain damage, quadriplegic: $1.094 million
• Major permanent injury: $732,679
• Significant permanent injury: $516,568
• Death: $406,569
• Major temporary injury: $233,124
• Minor permanent injury: $243,754
• Minor temporary injury: $75,857
• Insignificant injury: $35,500

The national average payout is $329,565. In Arizona, the average payout for medical malpractice claims is $390,000.

These are averages and not reflective of the value of your personal injury case.