Malpractice Attorneys

in West Palm Beach, Florida

Proving Causation in Medical Negligence Cases

Proving causation of injuries and damages can be difficult in a medical malpractice case. To win your case, you must prove that your medical provider owed you a standard of care and his or her failure to keep to that standard caused you harm.

As the plaintiff, you must assemble and present enough evidence to convince a jury that your injury came about this way, and not from other theoretical causes that might be presented by the defense. The defendant might argue that your injury would have happened anyway as part of your original medical condition.

Two Types of Causation

Cause-in-Fact – you would not have been injured, were it not for the defendant’s actions

Proximate cause – whether the defendant’s actions, considering all the other relevant factors, were legally the cause of your injury

If the Court is persuaded that your medical condition would have led to your injury regardless of the defendant’s actions, you have not won your case. Nor have you won it if the Court is persuaded that you yourself were negligent, rather than the defendant, and your negligence caused your own injury.

Other arguments the defendant’s lawyer might use are:
That the healthcare provider may have deviated from the standard of medical care, but this did not change the outcome, which would have happened anyway.
That there was an “intervening cause” that involved a third party, assigning liability to that third party rather than to the defendant.

Expert Witnesses
Since medical issues are not commonly understood, and the jury and others involved need explanations to make things clear, expert testimony is needed. Each side calls in its medical experts and often the trial boils down to a battle between these experts. Opinions are given on the plaintiff’s health status, the defendant’s actions or inaction, the standard of care and whether it was met, and whether the defendant injured the plaintiff or not. Occasionally the health issue or surgery is clear even to a layperson, and then expert witnesses are not necessary.

Res Ipsa Loquitur – the Thing Speaks for Itself
If a surgeon leaves an instrument inside the patient and goes ahead with stitching, and the instrument injures the patient, this clearly could not have happened unless surgery had been performed. The standard of care was obviously not maintained, and this plaintiff may not need any expert witness to explain what happened.

From the perspective of causation, this plaintiff must show that:

This injury would not have happened unless someone was negligent
The plaintiff didn’t do this to himself
The defendant (or in the case of a hospital, its employees or agents) had control over the instrument that caused harm
This injury could not have been caused by any other instrument than the one controlled by the defendant

Contact us for a free consultation
We will be happy to listen and start to assess your situation. At the Law Offices of Craig Goldenfarb, we have many years of experience with medical malpractice law and all the complexities that enter into these cases. There is a set time period for you to file a claim, so don’t delay and let it expire.

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West Palm Beach, Florida, malpractice attorney Craig Goldenfarb represents clients throughout South Florida, including the cities of Palm Springs, Stuart, and Fort Pierce, and residents of Palm Beach County, Martin County, and St. Lucie County. Our office in West Palm Beach, Florida, is located a quarter mile west of I-95 on Palm Beach Lakes Blvd., behind Chick-Fil-A in the IKON Building.