When you seek medical care, you trust that doctors, nurses, and hospitals will adhere to professional standards. Unfortunately, medical errors occur, and when they cause harm, they constitute medical malpractice in California. Successfully pursuing a claim requires meeting a high legal burden of proof. If you or a loved one suffered injury due to a healthcare provider’s negligence, understanding the four core elements of a successful claim is the first step toward seeking justice.
To successfully prove medical malpractice in California, your legal team must demonstrate the presence of four critical elements:
The first step is establishing that a professional relationship existed between you (the patient) and the healthcare provider (the doctor, nurse, or hospital). This relationship creates a legal duty of care.
What it means: A healthcare provider assumes a legal responsibility to treat a patient according to the accepted standards of their profession. This is usually the easiest element to prove, as it is established simply by showing you were treated by the provider.
This is often the most challenging element to prove. A breach occurs when the healthcare provider fails to meet the accepted “standard of care.”
What it means: The provider acted (or failed to act) in a way that a reasonably competent peer in the same medical community would not have under similar circumstances. Examples include:
Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis.
Surgical errors (e.g., operating on the wrong body part).
Medication errors.
Failure to adequately inform a patient of risks (lack of informed consent).
Crucial Point: Establishing this breach requires expert medical testimony. An expert physician must review the facts and state under oath that the defendant deviated from the standard of care.
You must show a direct link between the healthcare provider’s negligent action and your resulting injury.
What it means: It’s not enough that the provider was negligent; you must prove that the negligence directly caused your injury, or significantly worsened your condition.
Example: If a surgeon made a serious error (negligence), but your injury resulted from a pre-existing, unrelated condition, you cannot prove causation. You must prove the surgeon’s error, not the underlying illness, caused the harm.
Finally, you must demonstrate that you suffered quantifiable harm, or damages, as a result of the injury caused by the negligence.
What it means: Damages include physical injuries, emotional distress, and financial losses. We calculate these losses, which may include:
Past and future medical expenses
Lost wages and loss of future earning capacity
Pain and suffering
Punitive damages (in rare cases of extreme misconduct)
In California, the law demands that the standard of care and the breach of that standard be proven through testimony from qualified medical experts.
At Colvin Accident Lawyers, we partner with reputable physicians and surgeons who are specialists in the defendant’s field of practice. Their job is to:
Review your complete medical record.
Determine what a reasonably skilled physician would have done in that situation.
State conclusively that the defendant’s actions fell below that standard, and that deviation directly caused your injury.
Without strong, credible expert testimony, a medical malpractice in California case cannot proceed.
California has a law called MICRA that places limits on the amount of non-economic damages (pain and suffering, emotional distress) a plaintiff can recover in a medical malpractice case. As of January 1, 2023, and subject to future adjustments, the cap is significantly increased, but it still exists.
California has a strict deadline, or Statute of Limitations, for filing a medical malpractice lawsuit:
One year after the date the patient discovers (or should have discovered) the injury, OR
Three years from the date of the injury, whichever occurs first.
Because of this rigid timeline, you should contact an attorney immediately after suspecting an injury from medical negligence.
A: The standard of care is the level of skill and care that a reasonably prudent and competent healthcare provider in the same medical field would exercise under similar circumstances. It is the benchmark against which the defendant’s actions are measured.
A: No. A disappointing outcome, complications, or an unavoidable side effect does not automatically equate to malpractice. Malpractice only occurs when the bad outcome is directly caused by a healthcare provider’s negligent deviation from the standard of care.
A: California’s Statute of Limitations for medical malpractice is strict: one year from the date you discover the injury, or three years from the date the injury occurred, whichever is sooner. There are very few exceptions, making prompt legal action essential.
A: Yes, but claims against government entities (such as county or state hospitals, or doctors employed by them) have special, much shorter deadlines for filing an administrative claim before a lawsuit can be filed. You must act quickly.
A: Non-economic damages are compensation for non-monetary losses, such as pain and suffering, emotional distress, inconvenience, physical impairment, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life. In California, these damages are capped by MICRA.
If you believe a healthcare provider’s negligence caused you harm, don’t wait. The deadlines are strict, and the evidence is complex. The experienced team at Colvin Accident Lawyers can evaluate your claim and guide you through the process of proving medical malpractice in California.
Would you like to schedule a free case evaluation to determine if your injury meets the requirements for a medical malpractice lawsuit?
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