Cosmetic surgeons are not immune from facing medical malpractice lawsuits. However, you can face several challenges in winning your lawsuits. If you are planning to sue your cosmetic surgeon, here is what you need to know.
What Are the Challenges?
Most of the challenges you could face in your medical malpractice case involve the jury. Juries can sometimes have an unfavorable view of cosmetic dentistry and cosmetic surgery. Without realizing it, the jury members could be letting their own views on the surgery impact how they assess your case. If that happens, the jury could side with the surgeon even if he or she was negligent.
Even if you do win your case, there is a chance that the rewarded amount if far less than requested. Again, the fact that the procedure was elective could play a role. There could be a lack of sensitivity for your injuries because of your decision to attempt to enhance your appearance.
What Can You Do?
The best way to deal with those challenges is to build a solid case. With the right evidence, it will be difficult for a jury and judge to side with the cosmetic surgeon.
To build your case, you have to ensure that every aspect of what constitutes a medical malpractice case is covered. For instance, you have to start by establishing that you and the cosmetic surgeon had a relationship. Establishing this is one of the easiest parts of the case.
Once you have proven that a doctor-client relationship exists, you need to show that the cosmetic surgeon was negligent in his or her care of you. To prove this, you will need to establish what is considered the proper way to perform the procedure that you underwent and what he or she did that was different.
To do this, your attorney will rely on the help of a medical expert who specializes in cosmetic surgery. The expert can also be instrumental in getting the jury to understand why you are entitled to receiving a judgment in your favor.
If you are able to establish negligence, you have to prove you were injured by the surgeon's actions. This can be tricky in cases such as this. If your results did not turn out as expected but it is not viewed as botched by the jury, you have difficulties with winning.
To learn more about your chances of winning and to determine if you should move forward with a lawsuit against a cosmetic surgeon, talk to a personal injury attorney.