While the specific rules for pursuing a medical malpractice lawsuit will depend on each state's laws, there are basic guidelines for what qualifies as malpractice in the first place. This malpractice means that a doctor has inflicted injury or caused illness through incompetence or negligence. If you think you might have grounds for filing a claim, then it would be ideal to contact a medical malpractice attorney immediately, before your case expires. In the meantime, here are some of these guidelines to give you an idea of what constitutes malpractice.

First of all, you must be able to establish that you had a doctor-patient relationship with the physician you want to go after. Hearing a doctor advising his or her friends at a party does not count. This is a doctor you must have hired for treatment. If the physician treated you, then this relationship should be easy enough to prove. If the physician was not personally involved in your treatment, then this part can be trickier.

Not every unsatisfactory procedure or failure constitutes malpractice. Your doctor must have done something that a reasonably competent doctor would not have done in an identical situation. This is usually the crux of the matter: was the doctor actually negligent? You will likely need the testimony of medical experts to establish what reasonable competence would look like in your situation.

More than proving negligence, you will have to prove that the physician's negligence is the source of your injury. After all, if you went to a doctor, you were probably already hurt or ill. It has to be established that "more likely that not" the negligence caused the harm and not the injury or illness itself. Again, you will probably need a medical expert to explain this likelihood.

Of course, you have to actually have sustained harm to pursue compensation for damages. This can include pain and suffering, emotional and mental distress, loss of earning capacity, and unnecessary medical costs added to your treatment.

There are many reasons why you may want to sue a medical professional. One of the most common reasons for such a lawsuit is a failure to diagnose, or a misdiagnosis. If a reasonably competent doctor would have diagnosed your true condition, and your doctor's negligence meant you suffered from something that was preventable, then you might be able to sue for these damages.

If a doctor failed to treat you competently, either through misdiagnosis or lack of skill, then you might be able to sue him or her for this as well, such as if a surgeon left a sponge inside your stomach after the procedure was complete, or if the physician gave you the wrong treatment. A doctor can be liable if he or she failed to give you adequate warnings as well. You have to be fully informed about the risks of any procedure you agree too. If you do not provide informed consent, and proper warnings would have prevented your harm, then you may have a medical malpractice claim.

Medical malpractice cases are subject to a statute of limitations, and each state has its own rules about the deadline for a personal injury or wrongful death case. States have different laws about when this timeline starts too. Your case could have a deadline from the time that the malpractice happened, or from the time that you realized you were injured. Different state laws will come to bear on other crucial issues, such as whether or not you have to give your physician formal notice of the lawsuit before proceeding, or whether you need to bring your case before a malpractice review panel first.

To learn about whether or not your specific case qualifies as medical malpractice, and what you can do about it in your state, contact a lawyer today!