Maximizing Your Compensation: Seattle Medical Malpractice Attorney

If you were injured by a negligent doctor, you should talk with a lawyer about how to hold that medical provider – and, possibly, their employer – responsible. You might have the right to file a Washington medical malpractice claim. While pursuing a legal claim can’t fix what’s been done, it can provide you with compensation for your expenses and pain and suffering.

Matt Menzer from Menzer Law, has three decades of experience bringing medical negligence claims in Washington and Hawaii. He has a keen insight into the damages that you can be awarded in a medical malpractice case and the factors that might increase or lower your recovery.

At Menzer Law, we handle all types of medical malpractice, including:

To learn more about potential compensation from medical malpractice claims, call us at 206.903.1818 to chat with an online representative, or use the contact form to request a free initial consultation.

Compensation You Can Receive From A Medical Malpractice Claim

Economic Damages

Washington defines your economic damages as any objectively verifiable monetary losses. There’s no limit on how much you can receive for your economic injuries caused by medical negligence.

You can seek reimbursement for all your:

Past and future medical expenses
Lost wages
Reduced earning potential
Loss of business or employment opportunities
Cost of obtaining domestic services
Other injury-related out-of-pocket expenses

Your medical expenses include but aren’t limited to doctors’ appointments, specialists, emergency room visits, hospital stays, prescription medications, medical treatments, diagnostic testing, physical rehabilitation, medical supplies, at-home care, hospice care, and travel to and from medical care.

If you lost a loved one to medical malpractice, you can demand compensation for these damages along with the funeral and burial expenses.

Noneconomic Damages

Noneconomic damages are subjective, non-monetary losses, which include:

Physical pain and suffering
Emotional and mental anguish
Disability
Disfigurement
Loss of society and companionship
Loss of consortium (relationship with a spouse)
Embarrassment and humiliation
Destruction of the parent-child relationship

Establishing Your Medical Malpractice Damages

It’s important to talk with an experienced attorney about how much your case might be worth. The first thing we’ll do is calculate your economic injuries. This number will be based on your bills, receipts and records of your wages – it’s an objective figure.

Several factors impact the value of your medical malpractice claim, including the severity of your injuries. Serious injuries and those that lead to disability or disfigurement can result in greater economic and noneconomic damages than moderate injuries. If need be, we’ll work with medical and rehabilitation experts to establish the gravity of your injuries and how they may impact your future.

Your ability to establish your pain, suffering and other noneconomic damages is essential. You need to document as best you can how badly these injuries have impacted your life. We might recommend that you take photographs, see your doctors on a regular basis and keep a daily journal of your pain and other experiences.

How A Medical Provider Can Try To Limit Your Compensation

Pure Comparative Fault

Your medical provider might claim that you partly caused your injuries or made the harm worse. They might allege that you didn’t follow the treatment plan in some way, claiming, for instance, that you didn’t take all the prescribed medication or follow through with physical therapy.

In Washington, if you contributed to your injuries, you’ll be assigned a percentage of fault. The state follows a pure comparative negligence rule. Your amount of fault proportionately decreases your compensation, but no amount of fault bars you from receiving a settlement or jury award.

Evidence Of Other Compensation

During mediation or a trial, the medical provider can put forth evidence that you’ve already received compensation (money or property) from someone else for your injuries. This could mean that you received other insurance proceeds, but it doesn’t include help from family. You can fight back against this evidence by showing that any compensation you’ve received must be paid back.

Does Washington Have Medical Malpractice Damage Caps?

No, there is no statutory limit on how much compensation you can receive. Years ago, Washington placed a limit on how much you could receive for noneconomic damages, based on a multiplier of your life expectancy and average annual wages (both of which were determined by law). But in 1989, the Washington Supreme Court found that a limitation on noneconomic damages was unconstitutional.

Let Us At Menzer Law Fight For You

We can’t make any guarantees regarding what your medical negligence claim is worth. But we can promise to thoroughly evaluate your damages and fight for you to receive the maximum compensation possible.

To schedule a free consultation with Menzer Law, in Seattle, Washington, use our online form or call 206.903.1818.