If you have experienced medical malpractice, you may be wondering whether you should take your case to trial. Your medical malpractice attorney will be able to look at your case and tell you if you may need to take it to court.
Ask a Medical Malpractice Attorney: Is It Better to Settle out of Court?
Less Stress
Injuries and damages caused by medical malpractice can be extremely stressful to deal with. Not only do you have an injury to heal, but you also have to deal with the emotional trauma of not being treated properly by your doctor.
Taking a case to trial is going to bring a lot more stress with it. This may be reason enough alone to try and settle out of court. You won’t need to worry about a lengthy and anxiety-inducing legal process if you decide to go this route.
Less Cost
Taking a case to court is an expensive process. When you are already dealing with excess medical bills from your injury, then finding ways to spend as little money as possible can help lessen the financial burden. Unfortunately, if you take your case to trial, you may end up with some hefty fees.
There are your attorney’s fees to consider along with missed wages from time spent away from work and travel expenses. There’s also the possibility that the judge could rule in favor of the defendant which means you could wind up with a serious financial burden. It’s easier to avoid this if you settle out of court.
Confidentiality
If your privacy is important to you, then you’ll want to aim to settle out of court rather than go to trial. When you take a case to trial, the records will become public unless the judge explicitly decides otherwise.
This loss of privacy can be upsetting for some people. If you decide to settle out of court, however, you’ll have much more control over who gets to know about your case. You can sign a confidentiality agreement as part of your settlement and keep the matters of your case between yourselves.
When Should a Case Be Taken to Court?
Ideally, you’ll be able to settle your case without having to go in front of a judge. That said, there are some situations when going to trial may be inevitable. For instance, if your injury is particularly severe, your lawyer may recommend you go to court.
You may also need to take your case to trial if the other party is refusing to offer you a fair settlement, or is refusing to offer you anything at all. In some cases, a trial can help to change legislation and prevent similar things from happening to other people.
Why Should You Work With a Lawyer?
Lawyers Have the Right Training
When you work with the top medical malpractice lawyer in Maryland, you can trust that you are getting expert legal advice and guidance. That’s because your lawyer will have spent years training and becoming experts in their fields.
This is particularly important for medical malpractice cases. These cases can be notoriously difficult to prove, so you’ll need all the help you can get. You’re much more likely to get fair compensation if you have a qualified lawyer backing you up.
They Have Access to Expert Witnesses
During your case, one of the things you’ll need to prove is that your doctor breached their duty of care to you by failing to provide quality medical services. To help prove this, your lawyer may hire the help of an expert witness.
These are professionals in their fields who can be hired to provide testimony during legal battles. In a medical malpractice case, an expert witness may be a doctor with similar training and experience who can testify that they would have done something different if they were treating you.
Lawyers Know What a Fair Settlement Looks Like
As a layperson, you may not know what your medical malpractice case is really worth. Your lawyer will have a much better idea and will give you realistic expectations for your settlement. If you are offered something by the other party, your lawyer will let you know if it’s a fair deal or not.
If you decide together that your case is worth more, your lawyer can negotiate with the other party’s attorney to get something that is fair. If this continues to fail, then your lawyer will represent you in court and fight to get you what you deserve.
Medical malpractice can be a deeply traumatic experience to deal with. Your lawyer will help you attempt to settle out of court, allowing you to avoid expensive and stressful experiences. If you do end up needing to go to court, your lawyer will fight for your rights and ensure you get fair compensation.
