The term “medical malpractice” includes many types of health care liability claims, against doctors, hospitals, nurses, laboratories, technicians, and other health care professionals.The law requires that a plaintiff in a medical malpractice lawsuit prove that the defendant health care provider breached a duty to the patient (usually a duty to provide care in a non-negligent fashion), and that the breach resulted in damages to the patient.
The law requires that almost all medical malpractice suits be supported by qualified expert testimony. Acquiring quality expert testimony requires expertise and it is an expensive process. The cases are almost always vigorously defended by malpractice insurance carriers with few limits on what they can spend in defense. Defendants and their insurance carriers only rarely settle these claims early. It is usually only in response to strong expert testimony that health care liability defendants are compelled to try to resolve the suit, rather than face a jury.
The first 18 years of Mr. Riley’s practice was principally devoted to defending doctors, hospitals, and nurses in medical malpractice lawsuits. He successfully handled hundreds of lawsuits, taking several dozens of cases to jury verdicts and handling many appeals. In the more recent 14 years, Mr. Riley has only handled the plaintiff’s side of medical malpractice litigation.
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