Why Will No Attorney Take My Medical Malpractice Case

Transcript: One question we often hear is, “Why will no attorney take my medical malpractice case?”

Hi. I’m Indiana personal injury attorney David Holub.

Oftentimes, we’re called by people who have called other attorneys and they find that nobody wants to take what they consider to be a good medical malpractice case, and the question is, “Why is that?” Specific reasons may vary, but one of the reasons that is always important is “Was there a serious injury?”

If there was not a serious injury, it does not pay financially to try to pursue a medical malpractice case. You could be spending thousands of dollars on experts because you have to have an expert for a medical malpractice case.

And if your injury is not serious, then most attorneys will tell you up front your injury is not serious enough to warrant pursuing a case. Another reason why your medical malpractice case is not accepted by an attorney is that sometimes doctors do things right, but get bad results. There’s no guarantee in the medical field, just like there’s no guarantee in the legal field, and sometimes doctors can do everything right, but not get the result that you hope for or that they hope for–that doesn’t mean that there’s been medical malpractice. Another reason why your case might be refused by an attorney is that too much time has passed. In Indiana, generally, it’s a two year statute of limitations time period.

There are always exceptions, so call us. But if the attorney you talk to finds out that more than the two years time period has passed and they don’t discover any solid basis for allowing you to avoid that bar to filing an action, you probably won’t find the attorney accepting your case. Another situation which frequently leads to an attorney not accepting the case is if a doctor has no medical malpractice insurance.

Sometimes the worst doctors practice without malpractice insurance. Another reason why an attorney may not accept a case is if a person has died and there’s no beneficiary who can recover. It’s very important if an elderly person dies that there be a beneficiary to pursue a case.

For example, if someone elderly in a nursing home dies without any heirs or any dependents, that may justify not pursuing a case even though there has been what you would call substandard care and a serious injury.

Another reason why an attorney may be reluctant to take a case is if the bills have been paid by Medicare and there is a huge Medicare pay-back lien. The law is that if Medicare pays for medical care and treatment, they get money back out of a lawsuit. So, for example, if a person is injured and is in a nursing home, and all of the bills for their injury are being paid by Medicare, sometimes it doesn’t make good economic sense even if there’s solid malpractice and solid damages to pursue that case because all the money, or a good percentage of it, would go back to the government to payback Medicare.

Please consult our website for additional informational videos. Thank you.

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