ST. LOUIS MEDICAL MALPRACTICE LAWYER
This page has been written, edited, and reviewed by a team of legal writers following our comprehensive editorial guidelines. This page was approved by Founding Partner, Terry Crouppen who has more than 40 years of legal experience as a personal injury attorney. Our last modified date shows when this page was last reviewed.
This page has been written, edited, and reviewed by a team of legal writers following our comprehensive editorial guidelines. This page was approved by Founding Partner, Terry Crouppen who has more than 40 years of legal experience as a personal injury attorney. Our last modified date shows when this page was last reviewed.
- Last Modified:
- March 14, 2024
Missouri medical negligence victims can file a claim against a doctor, hospital, or another caretaker to recover compensation for their injuries. Our experienced St. Louis medical malpractice lawyers at Brown & Crouppen Law Firm can help you navigate the claims process, file a lawsuit, and seek maximum damages.
- What Is Medical Malpractice?
- We Handle All Types of Medical Malpractice Cases in St. Louis, MO
- How Can Brown and Crouppen’s St. Louis Medical Malpractice Attorneys Help You?
- What Damages Are Available in Missouri Medical Malpractice Cases?
- Medical Malpractice Damage Caps in Missouri Cases
- What Do I Have to Prove to Win a Medical Negligence Case in St. Louis?
- Who’s Liable in a Missouri Medical Malpractice Lawsuit?
- Statute of Limitations in Missouri Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
- When Should I Hire a Lawyer If I’ve Been the Victim of Medical Malpractice in Missouri?
- Our Trusted Medical Malpractice Lawyers in St. Louis Are Ready To Fight For You
Medical errors are a leading cause of avoidable injury and death across the United States, claiming over 250,000 lives nationwide every year. When St. Louis, Missouri, doctors and hospitals make mistakes, Brown & Crouppen is here to hold them accountable. If you’ve been injured or lost a family member from medical negligence, contact our St. Louis medical malpractice lawyers for help.
We’re award-winning trial attorneys who have dedicated our careers to helping injury victims and grieving families in St. Louis and across the Midwest. Our results speak for themselves—we’ve secured more than $1 billion in life-changing settlements and verdicts from insurance companies, hospitals, and other tough adversaries.
Don’t settle for less than you deserve and let the hospital push you around. Level the playing field by putting our top-rated law firm in your corner. We offer free consultations, so please call our St. Louis medical malpractice law firm to arrange yours today.
What Is Medical Malpractice?
Malpractice refers to a medical professional’s failure to provide an appropriate level of care to a patient. In Missouri, doctors and other health care providers are held to heightened standards of care.
We expect more from them because they have extensive training in the medical field—and because patients’ lives are literally at stake.
When doctors fail to exercise a reasonable and appropriate level of care and a patient gets hurt, they can be considered medically negligent.
We Handle All Types of Medical Malpractice Cases in St. Louis, MO
Some of the leading causes of medical malpractice include:
- Failure to diagnose
- Delayed diagnosis
- Improper diagnosis
- Surgical error
- Leaving a foreign object in the body after surgery
- Wrong-site surgery
- Anesthesia error
- Medication error
- Birth injury
- Failure to treat
- Failure to perform diagnostic tests
- Emergency room errors
- Failure to obtain a patient’s informed consent
- Premature discharge
Medical malpractice claims can be based on any act, omission, or mistake that’s made while a patient is under a medical professional’s care.
How Can Brown and Crouppen’s St. Louis Medical Malpractice Attorneys Help You?
Medical malpractice is one of the most complex areas of personal injury law. In theory, it should be easy to hold negligent doctors and health care providers responsible for their mistakes. Unfortunately, Missouri laws tend to favor doctors and hospitals, not injured and traumatized patients like you.
Hiring an experienced St. Louis personal injury lawyer to handle your medical malpractice case is the best way to increase your chance of success.
Brown & Crouppen is a full-service personal injury law firm. We’ve been going toe-to-toe with greedy hospitals and manipulative insurance companies in Missouri since 1979, winning top results for our clients.
We’ve been widely recognized for the high quality of our services, our commitment to each of our clients, and our community involvement. For example, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch named us the Best Law Firm in St. Louis.
Our award-winning legal team of more than 250 professionals believes that everyone deserves the best representation possible, and that’s exactly what you’ll get from our firm. When you trust us to represent you in your medical negligence case, we will:
- Handle your damages claim from start to finish, allowing you to focus on your recovery
- Conduct a thorough investigation into your medical treatment and the error that caused your injury
- Gather medical records, patient charts, photographs, video recordings, lab reports, treatment plans, nurses’ and doctors’ notes, diagnostic information, and other evidence to support your case
- Interview and depose witnesses
- Consult with medical experts and specialists
- Prepare an Affidavit of Qualified Health Care Provider
- Negotiate with the negligent medical professional (or their defense attorney), hospitals, or other interested parties on your behalf
- Prepare your case for trial if you don’t receive a fair settlement or the other parties refuse to negotiate
Our goal isn’t just to help you win your medical malpractice case. It’s to maximize your financial recovery so that you can start to get past this traumatic experience and live your life again. While money may not reverse the damage that’s been done, it can relieve the tremendous financial burden of a catastrophic injury or illness. Contact our St. Louis law office to learn more about our legal services and schedule a free case assessment today.
What Damages Are Available in Missouri Medical Malpractice Cases?
In a Missouri medical malpractice claim, plaintiffs can recover economic and non-economic damages.
Economic damages are awarded to offset the financial costs and losses associated with your negligent medical care, including:
- Present and future medical bills
- Physical therapy
- Occupational therapy
- Transportation to another medical facility
- Medical-related travel expenses
- Lost wages and income
- Lost future benefits
- Disability
- Reduced earning capacity
- Funeral and burial costs if a family member is killed by a medical mistake
Non-economic damages are awarded to compensate for subjective, non-monetary losses victims experience, including:
- Pain and suffering
- Chronic physical pain
- Emotional distress
- Disfigurement
- Scarring
- Reduced quality of life
- Loss of consortium
- Embarrassment
Punitive damages can potentially be awarded, but plaintiffs must prove that their doctor “intentionally caused damage” or “demonstrated malicious misconduct.”
Medical Malpractice Damage Caps in Missouri Cases
Under Missouri law, compensation for non-economic losses in medical malpractice cases is capped at $400,000. In cases involving catastrophic injuries or wrongful death, this cap is raised to $700,000.
Keep in mind that these caps only limit non-economic damages. Missouri law doesn’t cap economic damages, so your total compensation could be significantly higher than these maximums.
What Do I Have to Prove to Win a Medical Negligence Case in St. Louis?
Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor fails to exercise reasonable care and a patient gets hurt. These cases arise from negligence. When you file a claim or lawsuit, you’ll have to prove that:
A Doctor-Patient Relationship Existed
A medical malpractice claim begins with establishing the existence of a doctor-patient relationship. This association arises when a medical professional agrees to provide, and you agree to receive, their health care. The agreement creates a legal duty of care that the medical provider owes to you and requires them to uphold a minimum standard of professional conduct.
The Doctor Breached Their Duty of Care
A breach of duty occurs when a health care professional’s actions (or inactions) deviate from the standard of care. In order to prove that a doctor breached their duty of care in Missouri, you need to establish that another doctor would have acted differently under the same or similar circumstances.
You’ll need another expert medical professional to provide an Affidavit of Qualified Health Care Provider to substantiate your claim. According to Missouri law, the affidavit should show “that the defendant health care provider failed to use such care as a reasonably prudent and careful health care provider would have under similar circumstances and that such failure… directly caused or directly contributed to cause the damages claimed in the petition.”
The Doctor’s Actions Were the Direct and Proximate Cause of Injury
You and your medical malpractice injury attorney must show that the doctor’s breach of the duty of care caused your harm. This task involves demonstrating that the injury would not have occurred “but for” the health care provider’s negligence and that the injury was a foreseeable consequence of that negligence.
You Suffered Damages as a Result of the Breach
The final element involves demonstrating that you suffered actual damages from the health care provider’s breach of duty. Damages can include physical injuries, emotional distress, additional medical expenses, lost income, and other losses directly attributable to the malpractice.
Get started with a free consultation with one of our skilled Personal Injury Lawyers today.
Who’s Liable in a Missouri Medical Malpractice Lawsuit?
Medical malpractice claims can be based on any act, omission, or mistake that’s made while a patient is under a medical professional’s care.
Medical errors can arise from staff miscommunication, charting errors, understaffing, fatigue, and a host of other reasons. Under Missouri law, anyone who owes you a duty of care and contributes to a medical error can potentially be responsible for your resulting costs and trauma.
After a thorough investigation of your medical negligence case, our personal injury attorneys may determine that one or more of the following parties are liable:
- Primary care physician
- Emergency room doctor
- Specialist, including OBGYN, oncologist, psychiatrist, or pediatrician
- Nurse
- Nurse practitioner (NP)
- Physician assistant (PA)
- Pharmacist
- Surgeon
- Anesthesiologist
- Hospital staff
- Hospital administration
- Urgent treatment facilities
We will aggressively pursue compensation from anyone who directly or indirectly contributed to an act of medical negligence that caused you harm.
Statute of Limitations in Missouri Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
Patients have a limited amount of time to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. In St. Louis, such actions are subject to a two-year statute of limitations. This deadline is strictly enforced, and failure to meet it may cause the court to dismiss your case.
However, there are some exceptions, such as in cases where “foreign objects” are left in the body during surgery. In these scenarios, patients have up to two years from the date the object is discovered (or should have been discovered) to file a lawsuit.
In cases involving minors, there is also a 10-year statute of repose that bars all claims one decade from the date of an act of medical negligence. Think of this as a once-and-for-all deadline. After 10 years go by, you lose the right to file a claim, even if your medical malpractice injury hasn’t been discovered yet.
When Should I Hire a Lawyer If I’ve Been the Victim of Medical Malpractice in Missouri?
Ultimately, it is best to consult with a medical malpractice attorney before relying on potential exceptions. It will ensure that you do not lose your right to seek compensation by missing the filing deadline.
Additionally, getting help immediately can improve the odds of a successful damages claim. Remember, evidence can be lost or disappear, and witness memories will fade over time.
The sooner our medical negligence attorneys can work on your case, the stronger your claim will be. Prompt action also will help ensure that you’ll secure the compensation you deserve in as little time as possible.
Our Trusted Medical Malpractice Lawyers in St. Louis Are Ready To Fight For You
Whether a doctor failed to diagnose your cancer, caused a traumatic brain injury during surgery, or caused the wrongful death of a family member, Brown & Crouppen can help you fight back. Our St. Louis medical malpractice lawyers have decades of experience taking on tough insurance companies and hospitals in the Midwest. We’ve won millions of dollars for our clients, and we’re ready to help you win your medical malpractice case, too.
We offer a free consultation and work on a contingency fee basis. This means you pay nothing unless we win your case—end of story. When we win, our fees will come as a pre-negotiated percentage of the compensation we secure on your behalf, so there are no surprises and you pay no out-of-pocket fees for our services. Contact our St. Louis law office online or call (888) 803-1307 to set up your free consultation.
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