St. Louis Medical Malpractice Attorneys

For a medical malpractice lawsuit to be successful, the plaintiff must be able to prove the following four elements:

• Duty: The doctor or other medical professional had a doctor-patient relationship with the plaintiff and owed them a legal duty of care.
• Breach of Duty: The doctor failed to meet this standard duty of care.
• Causation: The doctor’s breach of duty was the reason that the patient suffered harm.
• Damages: Due to the above elements, the doctor’s misconduct resulted in economic and non-economic damages (including, but not limited to, additional medical expenses, lost wages, lost earning capacity, and pain and suffering).

Medical experts are often the key to validating many of the required elements in a medical malpractice case. Medical procedures, diagnoses, and courses of treatment are complex, and if the mistakes are not entirely obvious, the testimony of an expert witness is also necessary. Your medical malpractice attorneys should help you identify what evidence and expert testimony you will need to present as part of your case.

Which Element of Malpractice is Hardest to Prove?

Breach of duty is the hardest element of medical malpractice claims to prove. Oftentimes, proving the medical provider acted in a way that can be considered unreasonable is difficult. Essentially, it’s up to the plaintiff to show the defendant failed to provide the same amount of care that a different medical provider would have provided in a similar situation. Additionally, proof must be shown that the negligence directly led to the injury.

Calling on a knowledgeable expert witness can help prove this element as their relevant experience in the field can support evidence of whether a medical professional acted incompetently or negligently, failing to provide the expected duty of care.

Just because a patient did not receive the outcome they wanted from their medical treatment does not automatically mean their physician committed medical malpractice. Many surgeries and procedures have higher failure rates, but physicians and patients still choose to have them performed as the potential benefits outweigh the risks.

The key to identifying legitimate malpractice versus an undesired outcome is whether the result was caused by a failure to provide the expected standard of care. Did your physician fail to make a diagnosis that most doctors wouldn’t have missed in typical exams? Was a test not ordered for you that a doctor would typically order? Were you injured because the doctor failed to provide the level of care expected of a physician?

Accurately identifying malpractice is often a difficult determination to make on your own. An emotional response to a poor outcome after a medical procedure can have individuals looking for a reason why or an individual to blame, but that’s not always the case. For help identifying whether you may have a legitimate medical malpractice claim, it’s best to consult with an experienced medical malpractice attorney.

Missouri does allow victims to sue for emotional distress, but they are required to show tangible damages in the form of financial losses associated with the injury, including those from the actual distress. This evidence can take the form of:

• Therapist or psychologist testimony
• Therapy bill receipts
• Medical expert testimony regarding the injury’s impact on the victim’s life
• Testimony about the victim’s life before and after the injury from family, friends, employers, and coworkers

An experienced medical malpractice lawyer will help you identify and list examples of tangible damages in order to present evidence of your emotional distress.

The statute of limitations in your state can be one of the most influential elements in a medical malpractice claim.

How the Statute of Limitations Affects Medical Malpractice Cases

Johnny Simon discusses how the statute of limitations for medical malpractice cases plays a particularly big role in his client’s cases.

The Missouri statute of limitations in medical malpractice is two years from the date of injury. However, there are some exceptions to this statute.

• If a foreign object has been left inside the patient’s body, the statute of limitations would begin either two years from the date of discovery of the object OR two years from the date when the patient should have discovered the object when performing ordinary care, whichever date comes first.
• If the physician failed to inform the patient of medical test results, the statute of limitations begins either two years after the date of discovery OR two years from the date when the patient should have discovered the failure to inform, whichever comes first.
• If the plaintiff is under the age of 18, the individual has until his or her 20th birthday to file a medical malpractice claim.
• If the malpractice resulted in death, the case would reference Missouri’s statute of limitations for wrongful death, which states the individual’s advocate has three years from the person’s date of death to file a claim.

While these are the most common exceptions to the statute of limitations, there are others. Consult with an experienced medical malpractice attorney for a case evaluation to determine if your case falls within this statute.

According to the National Practitioner Data Bank’s Data Analysis Tool, from 2022 through September 2023, most reported medical malpractice claims in Missouri fell within the $100,000 to $249,000 range (99 out of 356 reports). However, a significant amount of victims received $250,000 to $499,999 (69 out of 356 reports). While rare, Missouri did have six reports of cases reaching a settlement at or more than $2 million.

Many of the payouts are after a settlement. Medical malpractice cases that go to a jury trial will often receive a larger compensation amount.

As of 2015, Missouri has established caps on damages in medical malpractice. When the law was first signed, non-catastrophic injuries were capped at $400,000 while catastrophic injuries were capped at $700,000. These caps are subject to an annual increase of 1.7 percent, meaning that by 2050, non-catastrophic injuries will be capped at $721,595 and catastrophic injuries will be capped at $1,262,791.

Non-catastrophic injuries are those in which the victim is expected to recover fully. Injuries resulting in long-term, debilitating symptoms that victims may never recover from are considered catastrophic injuries.

Medical negligence and medical malpractice are legally distinct terms. At the most basic level, medical malpractice claims need to prove that the provider caused the patient injury or harm, while medical negligence claims do not.  We explain the difference between medical negligence and malpractice more fully in this article.

At this time, Missouri does not have a patient compensation fund. Physicians and healthcare providers are responsible for obtaining their own malpractice insurance for necessary coverage.