Medical Negligence
Medical Malpractice Lawsuits in Louisiana
Medical malpractice lawsuits in Louisiana are governed by a special law that establishes specific procedural requirements for filing a lawsuit. A lawsuit against a doctor, hospital, nursing home, or other healthcare provider begins by filing a complaint with the Louisiana Division of Administration. The complaint must be filed within one year of the date of the negligent act committed by the healthcare provider. In some limited cases, you will have one year from the date you discovered the negligence, even if that date is more than one year after the date of the healthcare provider’s actual conduct. However, it is best not to wait, and you should speak to an experienced Louisiana doctor as soon as you suspect that a healthcare provider may have caused you or your loved one an injury.
Medical Review Panel
A $100 filing fee per healthcare provider must be paid with your complaint. Once the complaint is filed and the filing fee is paid, a Medical Review Panel will be formed. A Medical Review Panel consists of three physicians. The complainant selects one of the physicians, the healthcare provider selects one of the physicians, and those two physicians then select a third physician for the panel. The entire medical review panel will be supervised by an attorney known as the Attorney Chairman, whose job is to ensure that the panel meets and issues its opinion in accordance with Louisiana’s medical malpractice law.
At the medical review panel meeting, the physicians meet and review your complaint and the evidence presented by both you and the healthcare provider, and issue an opinion on whether they believe the healthcare provider committed malpractice. Not surprisingly, the three physicians almost always find that the healthcare provider did not commit malpractice. Most healthcare providers have had a complaint filed against them, and they all know that their actions could one day be reviewed by a medical review panel.
The medical review panel process can be long and complicated, but in Louisiana, a medical malpractice lawsuit cannot be filed against certain health care providers until the medical review panel process has been completed.
Filing a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit
If a medical review panel determines that the healthcare provider was not negligent, this does not prevent you from filing a lawsuit. However, it does give the accused healthcare provider an expert opinion that they did not commit malpractice. This means that to pursue your claims, you will need a medical expert to issue an opinion stating that the healthcare provider was negligent. This can be a very costly obstacle to pursuing a medical malpractice lawsuit in Louisiana.
Limitations in Recovery
The Louisiana Medical Malpractice Act also imposes significant limitations on the amount a claimant can recover. The maximum amount an injured patient or their family can recover is $500,000. While that may seem like a lot of money, considering that a healthcare provider’s negligence can result in serious injury or even death, $500,000 is not a lot of money. The $500,000 limit was established by legislation in the early 1970s and was considered fair compensation at the time. In today’s dollars, it would be more than $1.3 million, but the Louisiana Legislature has not seemed able to adjust the amount a claimant can recover. There is an exception to the limitation for future medical expenses.
Talk to an Experienced Medical Malpractice Attorney
At Big River Trial Attorneys, our attorneys have handled hundreds of medical malpractice lawsuits. We have worked on both the plaintiff and defense sides and are very familiar with what makes a good medical malpractice case. If you or a loved one has been injured by the negligence of a healthcare provider, please contact us today for a free consultation to discuss your case. Call us at (225) 407-0777 to schedule your consultation.