Damages in Charleston Medical Malpractice Cases

A medical malpractice case in Charleston is any scenario where the doctor has breached their duty by somehow failing to treat or mistreating their patient. Charleston medical malpractice cases typically have an established relationship between the doctor and their patient in a familiar facility.

There is a causal relationship between all of that and damages to the injured person/patient. The types of damages that would be available to the injured person are both economic and non-economic damages. If you are seeking damages in Charleston medical malpractice cases, a skilled medical malpractice lawyer can help you file a claim.

Economic Damages

Economic damages in Charleston medical malpractice cases would include past medical bills from the malpractice, future medical bills, and treatment that will be necessary as a result of the mistake made by the physician, facility, or combination of the professionals involved in the case. Any type of past lost wages that occurred due to their negligence, and any future lost wages that would be attributable to the negligence.

There would be the ability to argue for non-economic damages, which would include but are not limited to damages such as pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life; whatever permanent impairment or injury has occurred; and certainly loss of consortium, which is just a fancy way of saying damages for the spouse of the aggrieved party for services that they have lost as a result of the injuries and damages that occurred from the malpractice.

Non-Economic Damages

In a South Carolina medical malpractice case, the economic seeking damages in Charleston medical malpractice cases are much more quantifiable and easy to present as a solid number to the jury. Past medical bills cost what they cost, and the injured person is allowed to put that number out in front of the jury.

The future medical bills are debatable as to what they will be and there may be some different opinions from defense experts versus the plaintiff’s expert. A hard number can be presented as to past medical bills and lost wages, or economic damages, based upon the actual wages that the injured person lost as a result of the negligence.

The future wage loss can be a battle of the experts. The defendant may have a different expert opinion. There is a hard number that can be arrived at by the plaintiff’s expert that could be presented to the jury. With economic damages, we are dealing more with hard numbers with some exceptions. With the non-economic damages, it is a little more amorphous with pain and suffering, loss of enjoyments of life, and things of that nature which are not usually as quantifiable. This is left up to the sound discretion of the jury to award, which is fair and reasonable for these types of damages in Charleston medical malpractice cases.

Punitive Damages

Punitive damages in Charleston medical malpractice cases typically come down to punishment damages and are not something that is seen in most cases; they are an exception, not the rule. In order to prove punitive damages, the injured person would have to show some type of recklessness or gross negligence, and this would have to be exhibited in order to even make the argument to the jury that punitive damages should be awarded.

In the event that this is allowed to be presented to the jury, the jury still has to make the finding in their sound discretion that the evidence supports the finding of recklessness or gross negligence which would rise to the level leading to and providing punitive or punishing damages against the offending party or parties. This is not often seen and is certainly a tough standard to meet, but if the facts are there and the person can prove it, then that is certainly another avenue of damages that the injured party would be able to argue in a South Carolina medical malpractice case.

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