Medical Negligence Lawyer in Melbourne

Overview

Medical negligence

Medical negligence can happen in any setting. Whether you’re just getting your teeth cleaned or you’re going in for major surgery, a medical professional’s job is to ensure they treat you to the best of their ability while under their care. However, there may be times when the medical practitioner you’ve put your trust in has failed to meet the standard of care you expect from them.

Mistakes or negligence during medical treatment can result in not only illness or infection but further injury, disability or potentially death.

Gerard Malouf & Partners are the leading Australian no-win, no-fee law firm in Melbourne and specialise in maximising compensation results from your medical negligence claim. We can support you every step of the way.

Spotting medical negligence

Any deviation from the accepted ethical standards of a medical professional can result in medical malpractice. While some errors can occur more often than others, this does not negate the pain and suffering a patient can incur as a result.

Some common types of medical malpractice claims include:

Prescription drug error: Mistakes regarding prescribing the wrong drugs to a patient can be as mild as an allergic reaction or a loss of life. This can include prescribing the wrong medicine or the wrong dosage or failing to recognise dangerous drug interactions or signs of addiction, abuse or overdose potential.
Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis: A misdiagnosis can occur when a clinician fails to recognise clinical signs or symptoms, refers a patient to the wrong specialist, lost test results, error in evaluating data or even mislabeled lab results.
Failure to treat the problem: Failure to treat is a direct violation of a doctor’s duty to you and can look like failing to provide instructions for follow-up care, failing to order the correct medical tests, or releasing a patient too soon from the hospital.
Childbirth injuries: Injuries in childbirth can occur before, during and after the child is born and can have detrimental implications. This malpractice issue can be anything from not informing the parent their child has Downs Syndrome to excessive force removing a baby from the birth canal.
Surgical or procedural error: Whether in the emergency room or during elective surgery, every medical professional present in the operating room has a duty to prevent you from harm. However, the doctor may leave tools or medical devices inside the patient or perform surgery on the wrong part of the body.

You have the right to file a claim against a medical professional, a team or a hospital for any of these medical malpractice issues. Your clinician owes you a duty of care, if they breach that duty and the breach caused injury or damaged then you are within your rights to file a lawsuit.

Some other situations involving medical negligence include:

Negligence in nursing
Nursing home negligence
Dental malpractice
Obstetric malpractice, negligence and mistakes
Cosmetic and plastic surgery malpractice
Elder Abuse

Process

What GMP medical negligence lawyers can do for your claim

Medical negligence lawyers can help manage the complex nature of personal injury law based on years of experience and specialisation. If you’re looking for the best lawyer for your claim, Gerard Malouf & Partners is prepared to fight for the compensation you deserve.

When you give us a call, we will first schedule a no-obligation consultation for one-on-one legal advice and we can decide if you have a case.

Our consultation will help to determine the details of your case as well as your eligibility to file. Your eligibility will depend on whether or not the medical professional or hospital should have been the entity that was treating you directly. To determine this detail, collect medical records of your health practitioner and any evidence leading up to the accident.

Next, we will draft a brief to send to a medical expert who will look over the details of your case and full medical history. This is to determine what led to the injury or damage to your condition and what could have been avoided.

Once all of the information and data are compiled, we will meet again to compare information, build your case and then start proceedings. The next step will either be through mediation or will progress to court proceedings.

The result of a successful claim can help cover your medical expenses and any pain and suffering that accompanied the injury.

Proving negligence

The most important part of winning your medical negligence case is proving that the person or group of people who owed you a duty of care breached that agreement. A person is not negligent unless the following can be proved:

The harm or injury was foreseeable.
The risk was not too drastic or far-fetched.
A reasonable person in the same situation would not have made the same mistake.

Determining this last requirement will be the primary concern of the courts as they review your case.

Compensation processes specific to Victoria

Each state differs in how it handles medical negligence claims. Your personal injury lawyer will know the ins and outs of filing the claim in Melbourne. Medical negligence is regulated by the Wrongs Act 1958 and common law. What this means is that a person may be negligent when they fail to exercise reasonable care and skill. Such an act can lead to legal matters if the patient incurred injury as a result.

A medical professional will be called in by your lawyer or the hospital you are suing to have you examined for significant injury. You can receive compensation for non-economic loss, but you must show that you have sustained whole person impairment of at least 5% of your body or 10% for psychiatric injury.

Furthermore, according to the Limitation of Actions Act 1958, you can begin legal proceedings regarding your claim within three years from the date you become aware of the damages you have suffered. No claim can be brought in that is 12 years or older after the injury regardless of when it was discovered.

Gerard Malouf & Partners is a Leading Australian No Win No Fee Law Firm. We specialise in maximising the compensation results from your medical negligence claim. If you’re ready to earn the compensation you deserve for your personal injury, give us a call today to set up a consultation.

More services

Explore the types of Medical Negligence claims that Gerard Malouf & partners help to manage.

Medical Negligence Claims

Free Resources

Our guide to medical negligence claims

Download our guide to understand important time limits and processes that you need to follow to maximise your chances of success.

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“Thank you so much for my claim, it has helped me, my Husband and Daughter through a very rough time and your services run smoothly and very professional. I was very impressed.” 

Our Client

Our Promise To You

Our Difficult Case Policy

At Gerard Malouf & Partners, it’s our professional obligation to strive for maximum justice and achievable compensation.

Our difficult case policy ensures that our senior lawyers and experienced management team oversee notably challenging cases. This makes sure that we achieve the best results for our clients seeking accident injury compensation.

We maintain integrity by not accepting a case if we believe it is unlikely to result in compensation, or if the costs to our client outweigh the benefits.

This is our core philosophy and what differentiates us from other law firms.