Before beginning a medical malpractice lawsuit, obtain an opinion from another physician regarding the alleged negligence. Any lawyer who practices in the area of personal injury law will know doctors who can evaluate the facts of the case and provide a preliminary opinion. You may wish to try to investigate your suspicions yourself either through the internet, or perhaps a good university or hospital library.

But as a general rule, before decide a malpractice lawsuit, you should be aware of the following considerations:

First you must be sure you do not have missed the limitation on commencing an action. It may be that facts necessary to establish your claim were not reasonably discoverable for some time after the allegedly wrongful act, in which case the time would not start to run until the facts were reasonably available to you. On the other hand, for children the limitation period starts to run when they reach the age of majority. So, if your limitation is over, it is possible that your child may still sue.

Second, the plaintiff must clearly define the medical mistake and its effect (injury), and very important must provide the causal link between alleged negligence and the injury.

Third, even if such a link has been demonstrated by peer reviewed studies you would still have to prove that the physician who made the incriminated mistake know or should have known of the harmful consequences. In other words, you must show that the incriminated mistake have contravened the normally accepted medical standard of the day.

It may be that facts necessary to establish your claim were not reasonably discoverable for some time after the allegedly wrongful act, in which case the time would not start to run until the facts were reasonably available to you. That does not mean that you can simply delay conducting an investigation to prevent the clock from running.