Medical Malpractice Law in Wisconsin: An Overview

By: branson23 | Posted: 13th August 2010

Medical malpractice is also referred as medical negligence. Usually it happens if a doctor or health care provider fails to treat the patient properly and violates the governing standard of care. If the healthcare provider causes the patient to suffer from any kind of injury, legal action can be taken against that person. Medical malpractice occurs if a doctor or medical practitioner takes medically improper action. Some of the examples of medical malpractice are as follows:

o Failure to treat a medical condition aptly
o Failure to diagnose a medical condition
o Misdiagnosis of a disease
o Unreasonable delay to treat an already diagnosed disease

All the licensed healthcare professionals such as doctors, psychologists, psychotherapists, counselors, nurses can be held responsible for an injury suffered by a patient due to their negligence. Medical malpractice attorneys can file cases against them if they neglect to treat a medical condition appropriately.

Limits on Medical Malpractice Damage

In Wisconsin the defendant needs to pay $350,000 if it is a non-economic damage. If the case involves a death of a minor the amount may raise up to $500,000.00.

Collateral Source Rule in Wisconsin

According to the Wisconsin Collateral Source Rule the defendant can not avoid its responsibility (to be specific to pay compensation) producing evident that the plaintiff has already received compensation from his or her insurance coverage.

Set of laws for Expert Witnesses

In Wisconsin no special limit is imposed on the testimony given by expert witnesses in a medical malpractice case. The medical malpractice attorney appointed by the plaintiff can take advantage of this law.

Joint & Several Liability

Under the traditional law of joint and several liability, if there are many defendants liable for the patient's injury all are individually liable to pay the entire amount decided by the judge. In fact if one defendant is unable to pay the amount, the other defendants will have to pay the entire amount. However this rule has been modified. As per the new rule the defendant is supposed to pay an amount proportionate to his or her fault for the patient's injury.

Statute of Limitations in Filing a Lawsuit

A medical malpractice action has to be filed within one year of the date of injury or the date when the injury was discovered or maximum within three years of the date of omission causing the injury. No action can be filed if more than five years have passed from the date of the act.

Hiring Medical Malpractice Lawyer

Medical malpractice law in Wisconsin is quite complicated and the lawsuits are usually handled by well-funded defense firms. Without an extensive experience in this field it is difficult to handle the difficult issues. Hence it is crucial to hire a Wisconsin medical malpractice attorney who is well aware of the law and who can take things in the right direction.

There are very few online lawyer resources that can provide genuine information on Allentown based lawyers or law firms. Allentown Lawyer directory is one among those resources having the details of all the reputed lawyers based in Allentown.
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Tags: insurance coverage, defendant, plaintiff, healthcare provider, health care provider, medical negligence, medical condition, medical practitioner, healthcare professionals, medical malpractice case, medical malpractice attorney, psychotherapists, expert witnesses, misdiagnosis