Medical Malpractice FAQs

Medical malpractice is "bad medicine" that results in harm or damage. Medical malpractice is improper or negligent conduct by a medical provider or healthcare professional. If a medical provider or healthcare professional is negligent or careless while providing services for a patient and the patient suffers injury or death as a result, that medical provider has committed medical malpractice.

Medical malpractice is a failure to perform as a reasonable medical care provider should have performed under the circumstances; it can be a failure to do something that should have been done or doing something that should not have been done.

In legal terms, medical malpractice is a deviation from the standard of care expected of a similar medical or healthcare provider in similar circumstances. As the Connecticut Supreme Court has stated: "Malpractice is commonly defined as 'the failure of one rendering professional services to exercise that degree of skill and learning commonly applied under all the circumstances in the community by the average prudent reputable member of the profession with the result of injury, loss, or damage to the recipient of those services....'"

If you or a loved one has suffered a serious injury or loss caused by medical malpractice, medical negligence, or medical mistake, please contact our Medical Malpractice Law Group to arrange a free and confidential consultation.

A legal claim for medical malpractice is a civil action seeking money damages because a medical provider was negligent in providing medical care or treatment. A claim for medical malpractice is a claim in negligence applying the principles of tort law. In such a claim, an injured person (or the estate of a deceased person) alleges that a medical provider deviated from the standard of care expected of a similar medical provider by doing something that should not have been done or by failing to do something that should have been done.

What distinguishes malpractice cases from ordinary negligence cases is the professional standard of care and the need for expert testimony. In fact, this distinction has been codified in medical malpractice cases in Connecticut General Statute Section 52-184c, which provides in part: "In any civil action to recover damages resulting from personal injury or wrongful death ... in which it is alleged that such injury or death resulted from the negligence of a health care provider ... the claimant shall have the burden of proving by the preponderance of the evidence that the alleged actions of the health care provider represented a breach of the prevailing professional standard of care for that health care provider." This statute codifies long established common law standards.

Accordingly, to prevail in a medical malpractice action in Connecticut, a plaintiff must prove (1) the requisite standard of care for treatment; (2) a deviation from that standard of care; and (3) a causal connection or relationship between that deviation and the injury. Moreover, each of these elements must be proven through expert testimony.

If you or a loved one has suffered a serious injury or loss caused by medical malpractice, medical negligence, or medical mistake, please contact our Medical Malpractice Law Group to arrange a free and confidential consultation.

At Advocates Law Firm, we have been prosecuting serious injury and wrongful death claims caused by medical malpractice, medical negligence, and medical errors since 1983. In that time, we have reviewed thousands of medical malpractice claims and recovered millions of dollars for our clients.

The lawyers and legal assistants on our Connecticut Medical Malpractice Lawyer Group are all experienced and trained professionals with significant experience in prosecuting malpractice claims arising from medical negligence. Our firm has earned the highest rating possible from other lawyers for both Legal Ability and Professional Ethics. In short, we have the experience and know-how to help you and your family get the compensation you need and deserve for your medical malpractice injuries and losses.

Here is a partial list of some of our results in medical malpractice claims:

$5,000,000 in a case against an ob-gyn surgeon for a Trumbull woman who suffered serious injuries during a laparoscopic hysterectomy;

$3,350,000 in a Hartford County medical malpractice claim against surgeons and physicians who failed to timely recognize and treat an infection that arose after an Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangio-Pancreatography (“ERCP”) resulting in the death of a Farmington woman from sepsis and other medical problems;

$2,200,000 in a Hartford medical malpractice case against a hospital, emergency room doctor, and a psychiatrist for the Estate of a young boy from Windham County who died because doctors failed to diagnose his diabetes;

$1,950,000 in a medical negligence claim for the Estate of a New Haven County man whose heart illness was not properly diagnosed by health care providers;

$1,725,000 in a medical malpractice claim for the Estate of a New Britain man who died from a perforated duodenum that occurred during a laparoscopic cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal);

$1,300,000 in a medical malpractice case against an orthopedic surgeon for a Middlesex County man who suffered serious injuries during neck surgery (a cervical hemi-laminectomy);

$1,100,000 for the Estate of woman from New Britain whose medical illness of necrotizing faciitis was not properly diagnosed by an emergency room doctor in a Hartford County hospital;

$850,000 for a medical negligence claim against a Hartford orthopedic surgeon on behalf of a Berlin man injured during arthroscopic shoulder surgery;

$735,000 for a Plainville man who developed a serious infection and sepsis after a general surgeon had perforated the bowel during a hernia repair operation and failed to notice the perforation before closing the surgical opening;

$645,000 in a medical malpractice claim against emergency room doctors and nurses for the Estate of a young man from Massachusetts who died from a pulmonary embolism while waiting for treatment;

$365,000 in a medical malpractice claim for a New Hartford man whose heart attack was not treated properly by ambulance attendants (EMT's and paramedic);

$300,000 for an Avon woman whose sinus cancer was not diagnosed by her otolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat doctor) in a timely manner;

$225,000 in a medical malpractice claim for an eighty-one year old Massachusetts woman whose eye was injured during the administration of anesthesia before glaucoma surgery;

$200,000 in a Hartford medical negligence case for a three year old girl from Avon injured during the administration of anesthesia during heart surgery.

Our Connecticut Medical Malpractice Lawyer Group is lead by Attorney Ron Murphy. Ron has been licensed to practice law in Connecticut since 1983 and Massachusetts since 1985. Ron is also the author of "Medical Malpractice Claims — Connecticut Actions and Remedies" (Butterworth Publishing 1993); and a former certified Emergency Medical Technician. Ron is also an Adjunct Instructor of Law at the University of Connecticut School of Law, where he currently teaches Trial Advocacy (and where he previously taught Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility). Ron is also: a graduate of the Gerry Spence Trial Lawyers College and now one of its Staff Instructors, where he teaches lawyers around the country how to get the maximum recovery for injured clients; an Elected Member of the Board of Governors for the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association (CTLA), the State's only organization of trial lawyers dedicated to representing the interests of people injured by accident or malpractice; one of the Staff Instructors at the Connecticut Bar Association's Trial Advocacy Institute; a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum (where membership is limited to attorneys who have won million and multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements for clients); a designated "SuperLawyer" (an honor limited to no more that 5% of the lawyers in any state) in the areas of Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice as chosen by his peers through a poll conducted by the national publication "Law and Politics"; a member of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America; and a member of the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys; and a selected member of The American Trial Lawyers Association, an honor limited to 100 of the top trial lawyers in each state. As you can see, Atty. Ron Murphy has the experience and background to successfully handle any serious injury or wrongful death claim arising from medical malpractice or medical negligence.

If you or a loved one has suffered a serious injury or loss caused by medical malpractice, medical negligence, or medical mistake, please contact our Medical Malpractice Law Group to arrange a free and confidential consultation.

At Advocates Law Firm, if we agree to take your medical malpractice claim, we charge NO FEES and NO EXPENSES UNLESS and UNTIL we win your claim. In other words, our Medical Malpractice Law Group will do all the work and advance all the expenses to prosecute your medical malpractice claim but we get paid and reimbursed only from the recovery we obtain for you. We take medical malpractice cases on a contingency fee basis because otherwise our clients would never be able to afford to bring the claim to seek justice. Medical malpractice claims are very expensive to prosecute in terms of time and money. Ordinary people rarely have the money necessary to pay hourly fees for lawyers' time or the many expenses associated with prosecuting a medical malpractice claim. In recognition of this reality, our Medical Malpractice Law Group decided that if we are going to help people get justice for the harms and losses they have suffered as a result of medical malpractice, we will do so on a contingency fee basis. We will evaluate your claim and if we decide to take your case, we put our time and money at risk for you as your partner in the pursuit of justice.

Our contingent fee in a medical malpractice injury or wrongful death claim would be one-third of the gross amount recovered plus reimbursement of all of the expenses we advanced related to prosecuting your medical malpractice claim. If for some reason there is no gross recovery, there would be no attorney's fee paid and no expenses reimbursed. All of this would be spelled out in a written retainer agreement signed by you and Atty. Ron Murphy on behalf of our medical malpractice team and also in a waiver of the statutory fee formula.

If you or a loved one has suffered a serious injury or loss caused by medical malpractice, medical negligence, or medical mistake, please contact our Medical Malpractice Law Group to arrange a free and confidential consultation.

At Advocates Law Firm, we have three primary goals in pursuing every serious injury or wrongful death claim arising from medical malpractice or medical negligence. First, we want to help our clients deal with the burdens, pain, anxiety, and inconvenience that result from medical malpractice so they can focus on getting their lives back together as best they can under the circumstances. Second, we want to recover full justice (in the form of money damages) as compensation for all the harms, losses, and injuries that our clients have suffered and may suffer as a result of the malpractice, so they can move forward and deal with the future as best they can under the circumstances. And third, we want to make Connecticut’s hospitals and Connecticut’s healthcare system safer by holding negligent medical providers accountable for the harm they cause so that they (hopefully) will change the way they deliver medical care and not harm others in the future. Related to this last goal, see our FAQ’s below that discuss what you can do to help prevent the risk of medical errors or medical negligence in your own healthcare or the treatment of those close to you.

If you or a loved one has suffered a serious injury or loss caused by medical malpractice, medical negligence, or medical mistake, please contact our Medical Malpractice Law Group to arrange a free and confidential consultation.