Staten Island Medical Malpractice Lawyer

A claim generally needs a treating relationship with the doctor, nurse or hospital; care that departed from accepted medical practice; proof that the departure, not the illness, caused the harm; and real injury, such as added treatment, disability, lost earnings or death. A qualified medical expert usually has to review the records to answer the medical question. A bad outcome alone is not malpractice.

Generally two years and six months from the malpractice, or from the last treatment where the same provider was still treating the same illness, injury or condition that gave rise to the claim (CPLR 214-a). Narrow additional rules apply to some foreign objects left in the body and to a missed cancer, and infancy can extend the time up to ten years after the claim accrues; the deadlines section on this page sets out each branch. For an ordinary personal-injury claim over care at an NYC Health + Hospitals site, such as Sea View or the Gotham Health Vanderbilt clinic, a notice of claim is due on NYC Health + Hospitals within 90 days after the claim accrues and suit within one year and 90 days, subject to any toll or late-notice relief.

Damages can include past and future medical and care costs, lost earnings and earning capacity, and pain and suffering, including loss of enjoyment of life. A spouse may have a related claim, and after a death the estate may bring wrongful death and survival claims. The amount depends on the injury and the proof, so we do not quote figures before reviewing the records.

A known complication can happen even with careful treatment, and doctors can reasonably disagree. Malpractice is care that a reasonably careful provider in the same field would not have given, or failed to give, in the same situation, and it is usually shown through expert medical testimony. The standard is the same on Staten Island as anywhere else in New York.

We review care at any Staten Island hospital, clinic, urgent care center or practice. Staten Island University Hospital and Richmond University Medical Center are separate private hospitals, so no municipal notice of claim applies to a claim against them. NYC Health + Hospitals runs Sea View and the Gotham Health Vanderbilt clinic on the island, where an ordinary injury claim needs a notice within 90 days of accrual. Naming a facility is not a suggestion that anything went wrong there.

You do not hire one yourself. Usually, before filing, your attorney consults an appropriately licensed practitioner (a physician, or a dentist or podiatrist for those claims) and signs a certificate of merit stating there is a reasonable basis for the case (CPLR 3012-a). It is the attorney’s certificate, not an expert affidavit, and the statute allows limited alternatives, such as filing it later when a deadline is about to run, or a different certificate when a case relies only on res ipsa loquitur. Expert medical testimony is usually needed on the standard of care and causation; we arrange that review.

Records have to be gathered from every provider, including any care received in Brooklyn or Manhattan, and reviewed by medical experts. The hospitals and doctors usually have their own lawyers, and depositions and expert disclosure follow. An injury’s long-term effects may take time to understand. Every case and court calendar differs, so we do not promise a timeline.

If you need medical care, get it; decisions about your treatment and doctors are for you and your providers. Then write down dates, names and what you were told, request your records from every provider (Public Health Law 18), and keep discharge papers and medication labels. Note whether any care was at an NYC Health + Hospitals site, because its 90-day notice is short.

We do not publish statistics for any hospital. Malpractice claims in general often involve delayed or missed diagnoses, surgical and anesthesia errors, medication mistakes, emergency-department discharges that should not have happened, failures to monitor a patient or a labor, and infections or pressure injuries tied to lapses in care. Whether any of these happened in your care is a question for an expert review.

Possibly, but a complication alone is not malpractice. The questions are whether the surgery and follow-up met accepted practice, whether you were told the reasonably foreseeable risks and alternatives before a non-emergency procedure (Public Health Law 2805-d), and whether a departure caused the harm. Staten Island University Hospital is private, so no municipal notice of claim applies and the general deadline usually controls.

A lawsuit begins in the Supreme Court with a summons and complaint, usually accompanied by the attorney’s certificate of merit, served on each doctor, practice or hospital. An ordinary injury claim against NYC Health + Hospitals also needs the earlier 90-day notice. The proper county depends on the parties and where the care happened, and we confirm it at the review. The consultation is free.