When a potential client contacts a medical malpractice law firm and the prevailing question is, “how long is this thing going to take,” the lawyer or law firm will more than likely take a hard look at whether this is the type of client they will want to represent long term in this type of case.
Because of the many working parts of a medical malpractice case, there is a great chance that the case is not going to be over is a week or two.
THE USE OF MEDICAL EXPERTS…
Medical experts are needed in Maryland in these types of cases.
These experts will give opinions as to the standard of care for your case.
Not only will they speak on the standard of care, they will do a thorough analysis as to whether your injury was caused by the actions of the treating doctor and or hospital.
HOW DO THESE EXPERTS DO ALL OF THIS…
Experts will use all of the tools at their disposal to get to a valid medical opinion.
This will mean that they will look at not only your medical records, but in some cases they may want to do an examination and workup on you themselves.
Once this is done, they will make notes and write reports sometimes as to their findings.
Because a lot of work will go into the expert’s findings and analysis, it is going to take time to get all of this done.
WAIT…ALL OF THIS AND WE ARE NOT IN COURT YET?
The experts and initial investigation are step one.
Most attorneys who do medical malpractice cases will make sure that they do a good investigation before proceeding with the case.
For example, they are going to want to make sure that they can pin down standard of care and causation before getting too far into the case.
Add to this, the injury must be enough to justify filing the case, cost wise.
Once all of this is done, then the case will be ready for filing, which is going to take up more time due to specific court related issues, such as time to reply to the complaint, discovery deadlines, attorney scheduling conferences, and more.
SO IF YOU WANT A RUSH JOB…
If deep down you know that you will not be able to wait to go through this process, then filing a medical malpractice case may not be in your best interest.
You are going to be with your attorney for a long time and there is a great chance your relationship with the attorney and or law firm will become strained due to you placing more and more pressure on the attorney to, “move the case along.”
The attorney is going to of course do all that they can to move things along, but the legal process is just not fast.
FOR MORE HELP…
To learn more about the medical malpractice process in Maryland this is what we invite you to do, and remember it costs you nothing to take this action.
Pick up the phone and give us a call.
We can be reached at 301-850-4832.
We answer Maryland medical malpractice questions like yours all the time and we would be glad to take some time and listen to your story.
