Medical malpractice, occasionally indicated as medical negligence, takes place when a health care provider breaches the central standard of care when offering care to a patient, bringing about injury in the patient (Larson, “Colorado Medical Malpractice Law – An Overview”). Medical malpractice can stemmed from an action assumed by the medical practitioner, or failing to assume a medicinally suitable action. Medical malpractice examples are as follows:
- Misdiagnosis or failing to identify a illness or medicinal circumstance
- Failing to offer suitable care for a medicinal circumstance
- Excessive postponement in caring for an identified medicinal circumstance
The ill-treated patient can take medical malpractice actions against any liable accredited health care provider, as well as physicians, therapists, psychologists, and psychotherapists.
Restrictions on Malpractice Compensation
According to Colorado law, in medical malpractice cases, a nonfinancial compensation award cannot surpass $300,000.00. The overall award of compensation cannot go above $ 1 million.
Collateral Source Rule
In accordance with a customary collateral source rule, a defendant cannot request to decrease its accountability by bringing in evidence that the plaintiff has obtained payment from other sources like the plaintiff’s own insurance coverage. For Colorado medical malpractice cases, an obligatory counterbalance for expenditure from sources, which the claimant has neither contracted nor financed, is present.
Expert Witness Rules
As stated by Colorado law, an expert witness in a medical malpractice case should be certified and have knowledge of the standard of care on when the injury occurred.
Joint and Several Liability
According to a customary joint and several liability rule, where in excess of one defendant is discovered accountable for the injury endured by a plaintiff, every defendant is separately accountable for the whole judgment amount, such that if one defendant could not reimburse the other defendant or defendants are accountable for the whole judgment amount. Colorado has eliminated joint liability such that every defendant is accountable just for the expenditure amount in an amount in relation to their fault for bringing about the plaintiff’s injury
Statute of Limitations
Standard Deadline
The statute of limitations’ first part is the standard deadline, which provides medical malpractice victims a specific amount of years inside of which to file a lawsuit subsequent to the supposed malpractice occurring (Berg, “Colorado Medical Malpractice: Statute of Limitations and Award Limits”). Medical malpractice actions should commence inside of two years from the day the injury occurred or have been noticed (Larson, “Colorado Medical Malpractice Law – An Overview”). Though, no medical malpractice claim can be filed in excess of three years subsequent to the act bringing about
