Suppose you are bitten by a dog and the bites are severe; you may call a personal injury attorney to help you sue the owner for their carelessness with a ferocious dog. In cases like this, a personal injury lawyer Huntington Beach will also help you get the claims for your suffering and medical charges.
But, if the doctor treating you has prescribed some wrong medicine to apply to the wound, that has resulted in gangrene, and you had to amputate your leg. Will a personal injury lawyer be helpful in these cases? No, you should contact a medical malpractice attorney to sue the doctor.
People think their physical and emotional suffering due to someone’s negligence falls under personal injury. But suppose the injury worsens due to the mistake or negligence of medical professionals. In that case, you might need a special kind of attorney who specializes in handling cases resulting from medical carelessness.
How are the two different?
Complexity:
As compared to personal injury cases, medical malpractice cases are more complex. You need to make clear references and state exact reasons to make claims.
An issue in despite:
The defendant in many personal injury cases accepts their fault, and some faults are evident and do not need any argument to prove, like drunk driving cases. But it is hard to make medical professionals accept their mistakes, and they go to extreme levels to protect themselves.
A written statement from another professional:
In case of medical malpractice, you must bring a written record from another doctor stating that your suffering is due to the defendant’s carelessness. A personal injury case does not require this step.
Success rate:
It is difficult to prove the medical professionals’ negligence, unlike the personal injury cases. According to the statistics, the success rate for the plaintiffs is much higher than that of the plaintiff in medical malpractice cases. You need to hire an extremely skillful medical malpractice lawyer to win the case for you.
Parting note
Whatever the situation you are in, if you feel that it is the result of someone’s recklessness and you want justice to be served, then contact a lawyer, whether a personal injury lawyer or medical malpractice lawyer; your justice will be served.