Elbert, Nazaretsky, Rakov & Co.

Medical Malpractice

Among other areas, our firm specializes in medical malpractice. Negligent medical care can have tragic consequences, leaving a patient with a severe disability or even causing death. "Medical Negligence" issues have a common factor: failure of the medical institution to provide the patient with reasonable and acceptable medical care, not diagnosing an illness on time, not giving adequate explanation of the treatment the patient is about to undergo, not giving the correct and necessary treatment, and giving negligent care.

Distinct cases of Medical malpractice

Medical malpractice can arise in a variety of situations. Among the most important are:

• Negligent medical care. This is the classic case of medical malpractice when the treatment was performed incorrectly, contrary to the accepted medical rules and practice.
• Choosing the wrong or inappropriate treatment. This is the pre-therapeutic stage when the therapist must consider and decide which treatment is appropriate for the patient in his or her condition. Not considering all relevant treatments, or preferring any treatment over other treatments without a reasonable cause, may be medical malpractice.
• Failure to perform tests which should have been done to diagnose the patient problem in time, thus making it difficult or even impossible to cure. The obligation to refer to tests exists even when those tests are not included in the health insurance cover and the patient may be required to pay for them.
• Lack of informed consent to treatment. Before any treatment - except for urgent life-saving treatments - the attending physician must explain the nature of the treatment the patient is about to undergo in a language that is well understood. The physician must explain the advantages and disadvantages of the treatment, inform the patient about other treatment options, explain why this treatment is preferred over other treatments, inform the patient about the risks inherent in treatment, and more. The list, of course, is not closed. If the attending physician fails to provide the patient with all the information, it may be negligent.
•  There are many other cases which may constitute medical malpractice. What unifies them is unreasonable or unprofessional behavior of the attending physician.

How we manage a malpractice claim

In general, to win a claim against a physician or a medical institution, it is necessary to prove damage caused to the patient, and a connection between the damage and the negligence, that is, to prove that negligence caused the damage.

Handling a medical malpractice case begins with the meticulous collection of all patient medical records. After collecting the documentation, we analyze it. If we conclude that there is a possibility that there is a case of medical malpractice, we refer the documentation and the patient to a medical expert in the appropriate field, to examine the patient and the medical documentation and provide an initial opinion.

We work with the best medical experts in Israel and make sure that the opinions received will be as reliable as possible to increase our client’s chances of winning the claim.

If the initial opinion supports the possibility of medical malpractice, the expert continues and writes a full opinion that will serve us in court. The two-stage approach helps reduce costs. Usually, the cost of an initial opinion is included in the expert review price. If the expert concludes that the possibility of establishing medical malpractice is insignificant, there is no need to write a full opinion, lowering the cost of the initial legal inquiry for the client.

Based on the medical expert opinion, we prepare, serve, and manage a lawsuit in the appropriate court of law to maximize the rights of our clients. The extensive experience we accumulated in the field enables us to reach a settlement with excellent terms in many cases with the medical institutions and their insurers, thereby significantly shortening the procedures in court, which may otherwise take years to resolve.