Medical Malpractice Cases We Handle
Medical negligence can happen at virtually any point in a patient's care, from the initial evaluation and diagnosis through treatment, surgery, medication management, and follow-up.
The existence of an error alone does not determine whether there is a viable malpractice claim. The medical evidence must establish how the care departed from the applicable standard and whether that departure actually caused harm.
Getting the correct diagnosis at the right time can determine which treatments are available and whether a condition can be prevented from becoming more serious.
A diagnostic error may occur when symptoms are not appropriately investigated, abnormal test results are overlooked, necessary testing is not ordered, results are interpreted incorrectly, or a patient is not referred for further evaluation when the circumstances call for it.
Common questions include:
Were the patient's symptoms appropriately evaluated?
Were appropriate tests ordered?
Were abnormal results recognized and communicated?
Should additional testing or specialist care have been recommended?
Would an earlier diagnosis have changed the patient's treatment or outcome?
That last question is particularly important.
A missed diagnosis does not establish malpractice by itself. The delay must have caused harm. In some cases, that can mean allowing a disease to progress, delaying necessary treatment, reducing treatment options, or causing complications that could otherwise have been avoided.
What Must Be Proven in a Louisiana Medical Malpractice Case?
Medical malpractice is not simply a bad result after treatment.
Louisiana law generally requires proof concerning the applicable standard of care, whether the healthcare provider failed to meet that standard, and whether the breach caused the patient's injuries. Louisiana's statutory framework defines malpractice around a failure to exercise the required standard of care that proximately causes injury to a patient.
That means a case usually has three central questions:
What level of care was required under the circumstances?
Did the provider's conduct fall below that level of care?
Did that failure cause an injury that otherwise would not have occurred?
The third question is known as causation, and it can become one of the most contested issues in a malpractice case.
A healthcare provider may acknowledge that something went wrong but argue that the patient's outcome would have been the same regardless. Medical evidence and expert analysis may therefore be necessary to determine whether the alleged mistake actually changed the outcome.
How the Louisiana Medical Review Process Works
Louisiana handles many medical malpractice claims differently from ordinary personal injury lawsuits.
For claims against healthcare providers covered by the Louisiana Medical Malpractice Act, the claim generally must first go through a medical review panel unless the parties validly agree to waive the process.
The panel consists of three healthcare providers and an attorney chairperson. The healthcare-provider members review the medical evidence and evaluate whether the evidence supports the conclusion that the defendant failed to meet the appropriate standard of care, whether the conduct complained of was a factor in the resulting damages, or whether there is a material issue of fact that should be considered by a court.
The panel process does not function as a final trial.
Its opinion can become evidence if the claim later proceeds to court, but the panel does not ultimately decide what a judge or jury must conclude.
The process also makes it especially important to correctly identify the healthcare providers involved and understand whether each provider is covered by the Medical Malpractice Act.
What Is the Louisiana Patient's Compensation Fund?
Louisiana's medical malpractice system includes the Patient's Compensation Fund, commonly called the PCF.
The fund exists for the benefit and protection of medical malpractice claimants and participating qualified healthcare providers. Whether a healthcare provider is qualified under the Medical Malpractice Act can affect how a claim proceeds and how damages are handled.
This is one reason determining a provider's status can be an important early step in evaluating a potential claim.
Louisiana law also treats certain future medical care and related benefits separately within the malpractice system. For patients who require continuing treatment because of a malpractice injury, those future needs can therefore be a significant part of the case.
How Long Do You Have to File a Medical Malpractice Claim in Louisiana?
Medical malpractice has its own filing rules and should not be treated like an ordinary Louisiana personal injury claim.
Under Louisiana Revised Statute 9:5628, malpractice actions generally must be brought within one year of the alleged act, omission, or neglect, or within one year from the date the malpractice was discovered or should have been discovered.
The statute also generally imposes an outside limit of three years from the date of the alleged malpractice, even when the problem is discovered later.
That is substantially different from the general two-year period that now applies to many other Louisiana injury claims.
Filing a valid request for review with the medical review panel can affect the running of the applicable deadline for claims against qualified providers. Louisiana's medical review panel statute contains specific procedural requirements, including information that must be included in the request and deadlines associated with the filing process.
Because both the date of the medical care and the date the problem was discovered can matter, a potential malpractice claim should be evaluated based on its specific timeline rather than assuming the ordinary personal injury deadline applies.
What Evidence Matters in a Medical Malpractice Case?
The medical record is usually the starting point, not the entire case.
Depending on the allegations, relevant evidence may include:
Hospital and physician records
Imaging and diagnostic studies
Laboratory results
Medication records
Operative reports
Anesthesia records
Nursing notes
Fetal monitoring records
Pathology reports
Discharge instructions
Records from subsequent treating providers
Medical bills and treatment documentation
Expert review and testimony
The timeline can be particularly important.
For example, a delayed-diagnosis case may depend on when symptoms first appeared, when testing was ordered, when results became available, when the provider reviewed those results, and whether earlier treatment would likely have changed the outcome.
A surgical case may instead focus on what happened during the procedure and whether the resulting injury was a recognized complication or evidence that the applicable standard of care was not followed.
The evidence needed should therefore be driven by the medical question at the center of the case, rather than by a generic checklist.
Who Can Be Responsible for Medical Malpractice?
Medical care often involves multiple professionals and organizations.
Depending on what happened, a claim may involve:
Physicians
Surgeons
Nurses
Hospitals
Clinics
Anesthesia providers
Pharmacists or pharmacies
Other licensed healthcare professionals
Healthcare organizations responsible for the care at issue
More than one provider can sometimes contribute to the same injury.
For example, a diagnostic failure might involve how a test was ordered, interpreted, communicated, and acted upon. A surgical injury might involve decisions made before the operation, conduct during the procedure, and failures to recognize complications afterward.
Determining responsibility requires looking at each provider's role in the patient's care, rather than assuming the last person who treated the patient caused the harm.
What Compensation May Be Available in a Medical Malpractice Case?
The damages caused by medical negligence can extend well beyond the cost of correcting the original error.
Depending on the circumstances and the law applicable to the claim, losses may involve:
Medical expenses
Future medical care
Rehabilitation and therapy
Lost wages
Reduced future earning ability
Physical pain and suffering
Mental and emotional suffering
Disability
Scarring or disfigurement
Loss of consortium
Wrongful death damages when malpractice is fatal
A severe medical injury can also create long-term needs such as home healthcare, assistive equipment, ongoing therapy, medication, or repeated procedures.
Louisiana has a specialized statutory framework governing recoverable damages and future medical care in claims against qualified healthcare providers. Because those rules can affect how compensation is structured, the provider's status and the nature of the damages need to be evaluated as part of the claim.
What to Do If You Suspect Medical Malpractice
Patients do not always know immediately that a medical error occurred.
Sometimes the first indication is an unexpected complication, a diagnosis made much later than expected, a second physician questioning earlier treatment, or symptoms that continue despite assurances that recovery is progressing normally.
If you are concerned about the care you received:
Address your immediate medical needs. Getting appropriate treatment should come before investigating a legal claim.
Request your medical records. Records from the relevant providers can help establish what happened and when.
Keep a timeline. Record important dates, symptoms, appointments, diagnoses, procedures, and conversations while they are still fresh.
Preserve communications. Patient portal messages, written instructions, test results, and other communications may become relevant.
Document the impact of the injury. Keep information concerning additional treatment, missed work, new limitations, and other consequences.
Avoid assuming a complication automatically means malpractice. Medical records and appropriate expert review are often necessary to determine whether the standard of care was breached.
Do not assume the ordinary personal injury deadline applies. Louisiana medical malpractice claims have specialized filing rules.
Results
All settlements and verdicts were handled in partnership with co-counsel trial attorneys.
Ways We Can Support You
Every trial attorney on our team is trained to fight aggressively for your rights. Here's how our team will help throughout the legal process.
Free Case Review
We'll review your claim and explain the best legal options available.
Claim Investigation
Our team gathers evidence and builds a strong case from the start.
Expert Negotiation
We deal directly with insurers to secure the maximum recovery possible.
Court Representation
If a fair settlement isn't possible, we're ready to fight for you at trial.
No-Win, No-Fee
We guarantee that you don't pay us unless we win your case.
Frequently Asked Questions About Medical Malpractice in Louisiana
Concerned That a Medical Error Caused Serious Harm?
Medical malpractice cases require more than showing that treatment had a bad outcome. The medical records, applicable standard of care, cause of the injury, provider's status, and Louisiana's specialized claim process all need to be evaluated.
Hair Shunnarah represents patients and families throughout Louisiana when preventable medical errors cause serious injury or death.
Free consultation. No attorney fee unless we win your case.