When we file your lawsuit, it is our firm’s practice to be very clear and detailed about how the care you or a loved one received was negligent, and how this negligence caused significant injuries.
Our Las Cruces medical malpractice lawyer’s decades of experience tell us that if we describe the facts and allegations in your lawsuit accurately, completely, and in detail, the people who must respond to your lawsuit—the defense attorneys, the defendants, the insurance adjustors—also operate from these same facts.
We find that such transparency about what your lawsuit is about can lead to better recoveries for our clients, fewer case expenses, and less prolonged litigation.
The difference between a bad outcome and negligence.
Generally, medical negligence in New Mexico is defined as when a healthcare provider fails to exercise that degree of care and skill that is ordinarily employed by healthcare providers under similar circumstances. Negligence is also described as a failure to meet the “standard of care”.
A bad outcome does not, of itself, prove that negligence/sub-standard care occurred. To show that there was negligence in your care, New Mexico Courts require medical expert testimony to prove there was negligent care. Coates & Johnson PLLC will hire such experts in your case to have them address this threshold question.
Additional medical experts are also required by the Courts to show the second legal requirement in your medical malpractice case, specifically that of “causation”. This type of expert that Coates & Johnson will hire will answer the question of whether negligent care was a cause of significant injuries sustained by you or your loved one.
What is a Panel Hearing?
If one or more healthcare providers in your lawsuit obtained their professional liability insurance through a state-administered agency, something called a Panel Hearing is a necessary first step in your lawsuit. This Hearing must occur before we can file your lawsuit at the Courthouse.
At this Panel Hearing, your potential lawsuit is presented to a group of three attorney and three healthcare providers. You do not need to be present. Following this Hearing, a secret vote is taken by the Panel members. The results of this vote can never be used as evidence in your lawsuit.