The Law on Negligence

Tort and negligence law imposes a minimum level of due care on all persons in their interactions with others, including people who choose to volunteer. Negligence is generally considered failure to act with the prudence that a reasonable person would exercise under the same circumstances.  

Negligence Law Suite

More and more people in the USA initiate law suits for negligence in a medical office. Interestingly, it is no longer just the  doctor or nurse that gets sued for negligence and malpractice. Paramedical and other allied health care professionals are also named in these law suits.  Negligence implies low standards, and bad conduct! Even medical assistants, who work under the direct supervision of the doctor can be named in a malpractice lawsuit.

Negligence in a medical office is a failure in a doctor's or other health care professional's duty to patients based on a clearly defined standard of conduct. When negligence happens it means a facility or person has low standards, and bad conduct.

The requirements for a successful negligence law suite are:

• Breach of duty requiring a person to conform to a standard of conduct that protects others from unreasonable risk of harm 
• Breach of that duty (i.e. failure to conform to the standard of conduct) 
• Causal connection between the breach of the duty and the resulting injury 
• Resulting injury or damage which results in measurable physical, emotional or economic harm. 

What Will Happen?

As more patients, their family, relatives, friends and malpractice lawyers become aware of the role of the medical assistant, they also see a potential malpractice target if they believe they have received a poor standard of care. Those injured, either on their own, or encouraged by family, friends, or their attorneys wind up taking their cases to the courts.

Malpractice Links