Elements of Medical Malpractice: The Four Legal Requirements You Must Prove in Your Greenville Medical Malpractice Claim

When you have a legal claim, you must prove your case, but what do you have to prove?

Our experienced Greenville medical malpractice lawyer at Bobby Jones Law explains the four elements in a Greenville medical malpractice claim.

What Is Medical Malpractice Under SC Law?

South Carolina law defines medical malpractice as either doing what a reasonable healthcare professional would not do or failing to do what a reasonable healthcare professional would do. Essentially, it refers to failing to provide adequate medical care under the circumstances. Each case is assessed individually, taking into account what would have been reasonable for the patient based on the situation at the time.

Greenville, SC local medical malpractice laws

South Carolina medical malpractice laws apply in Greenville, SC. Medical professionals are held to a standard of what’s reasonable; this is a local standard.

The standard compares the actions of defendants to those of other reasonable, local professionals of ordinary knowledge, skill, and diligence. For medical malpractice cases in Greenville, SC, expert witnesses must address local community standards for healthcare.

The Four Legal Elements You Must Prove

The four elements of a medical malpractice claim in Greenville, SC, are:

1. Duty: A physician-patient relationship existed, and the healthcare provider owed a duty of care to the patient.
2. Breach of duty: The healthcare provider failed to meet standards of reasonable care.
3. Causation: Medical malpractice caused harm to the patient.
4. Damages: The patient has losses to compensate for with a monetary award.

To receive compensation, you must prove all four elements of malpractice.

Establishing a Doctor-Patient Relationship

The first element of a medical malpractice case is the duty of care. Healthcare providers have a legal duty to provide reasonable care to their patients. To establish this element of medical malpractice, you must prove that you’re a patient of the healthcare provider.

Typically, this is a yes-no question. If you received treatment at a doctor’s office, urgent care, hospital, or other outpatient facility, there are likely records of your care. There are rare circumstances where a doctor may not have a duty to provide care, such as when they are casually chatting at a social event, when they give indirect advice to another doctor about patient care, or when they are hired by an insurance company to conduct an independent medical exam.

Employment relationships in healthcare can be complex. For the plaintiff in a medical malpractice case, proving the duty of care means ensuring you name the right healthcare provider, employer, or ownership entity in the claim.

How To Show Deviation from the Standard of Care

To show deviation from the standard of care, you must prove what the healthcare provider did, which may include:

• What treatment was provided and when
• Techniques or skills used to perform a procedure
• Symptoms or warning signs
• Risks or care instructions that were explained
• Decisions made during care, errors
• Failing to assess patient needs in providing care, side effects
• Medical records and test results
• Notes and care records
• Medications dispensed
• Other acts, omissions, and facts relevant to the claim

In addition to proving what happened, you must prove how it failed to meet the prevailing standard of care.

Breach of the duty of care – a reasonableness test

A medical professional must provide care that is reasonable. The reasonableness test questions whether the healthcare provider met minimum standards of knowledge, skill, and attention.

The standard of care is measured by the practitioner’s particular medical field. Standards of education, licensing, and methods of treatment may vary across different medical fields. As the plaintiff, it’s important to ensure that your expert will be qualified by the court and able to speak with knowledge about the subject matter involved. See Botehlo v. Bycura, 282 S.C. 578 (1984).

Expert testimony is generally required to explain the departure from the standard of care. That’s because medical cases usually involve knowledge that’s beyond what most people know. An expert may not be required if the subject matter is within the common knowledge of ordinary people.

Causation: Tying Negligence to Harm

You must establish a causal connection between the defendant’s actions and the victim’s harm. Even if the defendant committed malpractice, there is no claim unless the victim is injured as a result. The element for tying negligence to harm is called establishing causation.

The plaintiff must prove proximate causation. Proving causation means proving that without the medical malpractice, the victim’s injury would not have occurred or could have been avoided.

When a plaintiff relies on expert witnesses alone to prove causation, the experts must state that the injury most probably resulted from the defendant’s negligence. However, the expert doesn’t have to use those words. See Ellis v. Oliver, 323 S.C. 121 (1996).

Damages: Your Compensation

A successful medical malpractice claim results in an award of compensation to the victim. Because each case is determined individually, the amount of damages is a case-specific inquiry. A victim may claim both economic and non-economic damages for the losses they have suffered.

Damages may cover a variety of losses, such as additional medical bills, lost income, additional household and personal care costs, pain and suffering, diminished life expectancy, quality of life, and more. Proving damages may involve the victim’s own testimony about their life, testimony of family and friends, employment records, and experts who can speak to the impact of the injury on the victim.

Damages may be highly contested in a medical malpractice claim, addressing issues like phantom medical costs and future expenses. An experienced medical malpractice lawyer can identify these issues and build the evidence to prove your case.

Note: Damage caps may apply in a Greenville, SC, medical malpractice case. Learn about limits on damages in South Carolina medical malpractice cases.

Contact an Experienced Greenville Medical Malpractice Lawyer

Bobby Jones Law is an experienced Greenville medical malpractice lawyer who understands how to prove the four elements of medical malpractice in Greenville, SC. You can have an attorney build the evidence for a strong case. Call or message us now.