When a healthcare provider fails to correctly identify a serious medical condition, the consequences can be fatal. Families who lose a loved one due to diagnostic errors face not only profound grief but also significant financial and emotional challenges. In Roswell, wrongful death claims arising from medical misdiagnosis allow surviving family members to pursue justice and compensation for their devastating loss.
Most people assume doctors will catch life-threatening conditions before it’s too late, yet diagnostic failures remain one of the leading causes of preventable death in American hospitals and clinics. A missed cancer diagnosis, an overlooked heart condition, or a failure to recognize symptoms of stroke or sepsis can rob families of years they should have had with their loved ones. These cases require not only legal expertise but also a deep understanding of medical standards and how healthcare systems fail patients.
If your family has lost someone due to a misdiagnosis in Roswell, Life Justice Law Group provides compassionate legal representation on a contingency fee basis, meaning you pay nothing unless we win your case. Our experienced wrongful death attorneys understand the medical and legal complexities of diagnostic error cases and work tirelessly to hold negligent healthcare providers accountable. Call us at (480) 378-8088 for a free consultation, or complete our online form to discuss your case and learn about your legal options during this difficult time.
Understanding Medical Misdiagnosis in Wrongful Death Cases
Medical misdiagnosis occurs when a healthcare provider fails to correctly identify a patient’s condition, leading to delayed treatment, wrong treatment, or no treatment at all. In wrongful death cases, the misdiagnosis directly contributes to the patient’s death by preventing them from receiving the timely and appropriate medical care that could have saved their life.
Unlike simple medical mistakes, actionable misdiagnosis involves a breach of the standard of care that a reasonably competent physician would have met under similar circumstances. Georgia law recognizes these failures as medical malpractice when they result in patient death, allowing surviving family members to pursue compensation under O.C.G.A. § 51-4-2, which governs wrongful death claims in the state.
The legal foundation for these claims requires proving that the diagnostic error was not merely unfortunate but negligent. This means demonstrating that another qualified physician, presented with the same symptoms and information, would have reached the correct diagnosis and prevented the fatal outcome. The burden of proof in Roswell misdiagnosis wrongful death cases rests on establishing this clear deviation from accepted medical practice.
Common Types of Fatal Misdiagnoses
Certain medical conditions are misdiagnosed more frequently than others, often with devastating consequences. Understanding which conditions are most commonly missed helps families recognize when negligence may have occurred.
Cancer misdiagnosis – Delayed cancer diagnosis remains one of the deadliest forms of medical error, as many cancers become untreatable once they reach advanced stages. Breast cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, and melanoma are frequently missed during routine screenings or dismissed as less serious conditions, allowing tumors to metastasize beyond the point where treatment can save the patient’s life.
Heart attack and cardiac conditions – Emergency room physicians sometimes mistake heart attacks for indigestion, anxiety, or musculoskeletal pain, particularly in women whose symptoms may differ from classic presentations. Misdiagnosed myocardial infarctions, aortic dissections, and other cardiac emergencies can result in death within hours when patients are sent home without proper treatment.
Stroke misdiagnosis – Time is critical in stroke treatment, as brain tissue dies rapidly without blood flow. When doctors fail to recognize stroke symptoms or misinterpret imaging results, patients lose their window for clot-busting medications or surgical intervention, leading to death or severe disability. Both ischemic strokes and hemorrhagic strokes are commonly misdiagnosed in emergency settings.
Infections and sepsis – Bacterial infections that progress to sepsis kill thousands of Americans annually when physicians fail to recognize warning signs or order appropriate testing. Meningitis, pneumonia, and bloodstream infections require immediate antibiotic treatment, and delayed diagnosis often proves fatal as the infection overwhelms the patient’s system.
Pulmonary embolism – Blood clots that travel to the lungs are frequently missed because their symptoms mimic less serious respiratory conditions. Patients presenting with chest pain and shortness of breath may be diagnosed with anxiety or bronchitis when they actually have a life-threatening clot blocking pulmonary blood flow.
How Diagnostic Errors Lead to Wrongful Death
The pathway from misdiagnosis to death typically follows a pattern where each missed opportunity for intervention increases the likelihood of a fatal outcome. Understanding this progression helps establish the causal link required in wrongful death claims.
When a physician misinterprets symptoms during an initial examination, the patient leaves the medical facility without the treatment they need. The underlying condition continues to worsen, and in cases involving cancer, infections, or cardiovascular disease, this delay can be the difference between survival and death. The patient may return to the hospital days or weeks later in critical condition, but by that point the disease has progressed beyond what medical intervention can reverse.
Misread diagnostic tests represent another critical failure point. Radiologists who miss tumors on imaging scans, pathologists who fail to identify cancer cells in biopsy samples, and laboratory technicians who misinterpret blood work all contribute to diagnostic errors that deprive patients of timely treatment. Even when tests are read correctly, communication failures between specialists and primary care physicians can result in critical findings never reaching the treating doctor who could act on them.
The standard of care in Georgia requires physicians to consider differential diagnoses and rule out serious conditions before settling on a benign explanation for a patient’s symptoms. When doctors anchor on an initial impression without conducting appropriate follow-up testing or specialist consultation, they breach this duty. The tragic consequence is that patients trust their doctors’ assessments and delay seeking second opinions until their conditions become irreversible.
Who Can File a Roswell Misdiagnosis Wrongful Death Claim
Georgia law strictly defines who has the legal standing to bring a wrongful death lawsuit when medical negligence results in death. Under O.C.G.A. § 51-4-2, the right to file follows a specific hierarchy that cannot be altered by the deceased person’s wishes or family agreements.
The surviving spouse has the first and primary right to file a wrongful death claim on behalf of the deceased and any surviving children. This right exists regardless of whether the couple was separated at the time of death, as long as they were still legally married. The spouse acts as the representative of the estate and brings the claim for the full value of the deceased person’s life, including both economic and non-economic damages.
If there is no surviving spouse, the children of the deceased collectively hold the right to file the claim. All children must agree on the filing and the choice of legal representation, which can sometimes create complications in families where adult children disagree about how to proceed. If the deceased had minor children, a guardian ad litem may need to be appointed to protect their interests.
When neither spouse nor children survive the deceased, the right to file passes to the parents of the deceased under Georgia law. Both parents share this right equally if both are living, and either parent can file individually if the other is deceased. Parents bring these claims in their own right for the loss of their child and act as representatives of the deceased’s estate.
Proving Negligence in Misdiagnosis Cases
Establishing medical malpractice in diagnostic error cases requires meeting specific legal standards that go beyond showing the diagnosis was wrong. Georgia law requires plaintiffs to prove four essential elements: duty, breach, causation, and damages.
The duty element is generally straightforward in misdiagnosis cases because the doctor-patient relationship creates an automatic duty to provide care that meets accepted medical standards. Once a physician agrees to treat a patient or examine them in a clinical setting, this legal duty exists. The more complex question becomes what standard of care applied to the specific diagnostic situation.
Breach of duty requires proving the physician failed to meet the standard of care that a reasonably competent doctor in the same specialty would have met under similar circumstances. In Roswell misdiagnosis cases, this often involves showing the physician failed to order appropriate diagnostic tests, misinterpreted test results, ignored classic symptoms of a serious condition, or failed to refer the patient to a specialist. Expert testimony from other physicians becomes critical here, as the law recognizes that medical professionals must evaluate whether other medical professionals met the standard of care.
Causation presents the most challenging element in many misdiagnosis wrongful death claims. Plaintiffs must prove that the diagnostic error directly caused or substantially contributed to the death, and that proper diagnosis would have prevented or significantly delayed the fatal outcome. This requires medical experts who can testify that the patient had a viable chance of survival if the condition had been correctly diagnosed and treated when they first presented to the negligent physician.
The Role of Medical Experts in Diagnostic Error Claims
Georgia law requires affidavits from expert medical witnesses in all medical malpractice cases, including wrongful death claims based on misdiagnosis. Under O.C.G.A. § 9-11-9.1, plaintiffs must file an expert affidavit within certain deadlines stating that the defendant healthcare provider’s conduct fell below the applicable standard of care.
These medical experts must be actively practicing in the same specialty as the defendant or have recent experience in that field. A radiologist who missed a tumor on a CT scan would be evaluated by another radiologist, while an emergency room physician who failed to diagnose a heart attack would face scrutiny from emergency medicine specialists. The expert’s qualifications matter significantly because Georgia law allows defendants to challenge experts who lack appropriate credentials or current knowledge.
Medical experts serve multiple roles throughout a misdiagnosis wrongful death case. During the initial investigation, they review medical records to determine whether the standard of care was breached and whether proper diagnosis would have saved the patient’s life. This analysis determines whether the case has merit before substantial resources are invested in litigation. Expert opinions also establish the value of damages by explaining how much longer the patient would have lived with proper treatment.
At trial, these experts must explain complex medical concepts to a jury in understandable terms while maintaining the scientific rigor required to withstand cross-examination by defense attorneys. They compare what the defendant physician did against what a competent physician would have done, walking jurors through the diagnostic process step by step. Their testimony often determines the outcome of the case because jurors rarely have the medical knowledge to evaluate diagnostic errors independently.
Time Limits for Filing Misdiagnosis Wrongful Death Claims
Georgia imposes strict deadlines for bringing wrongful death lawsuits, and missing these deadlines typically means losing the right to pursue compensation permanently. Under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33, the general statute of limitations for wrongful death cases is two years from the date of death, not from the date of the misdiagnosis.
This distinction matters in cases where the diagnostic error occurred months or years before the patient’s death. If a doctor missed a cancer diagnosis in January 2022 but the patient didn’t die until March 2023, the two-year clock begins running in March 2023. Families have until March 2025 to file their wrongful death lawsuit, regardless of when they discovered the misdiagnosis occurred.
The discovery rule does not typically extend wrongful death statute of limitations in Georgia, unlike personal injury claims where plaintiffs sometimes have additional time after discovering the injury. Courts have consistently held that the wrongful death statute begins running on the date of death, creating urgency for families to consult attorneys quickly after losing a loved one to suspected medical negligence.
Certain circumstances can toll or pause the statute of limitations, but these exceptions are narrow. If the deceased left behind minor children who would be the beneficiaries of the claim, the statute may be tolled until the children reach age 18, though this does not help surviving spouses seeking to file claims. Fraud or concealment by the defendant can also extend filing deadlines in rare cases where healthcare providers actively hide evidence of their negligence.
Damages Available in Roswell Misdiagnosis Wrongful Death Cases
Georgia law allows recovery of both economic and non-economic damages in wrongful death claims arising from medical malpractice, recognizing that families suffer multiple types of harm when they lose a loved one to preventable medical errors.
The full value of the life of the deceased forms the foundation of wrongful death damages in Georgia. This includes both tangible economic losses and intangible losses that cannot be precisely calculated. Courts instruct juries to consider what the deceased person’s life was worth to them, not just to their survivors, making these damages unique among civil claims. This constitutional right to recover the full value of life comes from the Georgia Constitution and cannot be capped by statute.
Economic damages compensate for financial losses the family suffers due to the death. Lost wages and benefits the deceased would have earned over their remaining work life represent a major component, calculated using the person’s salary history, education, skills, and expected career progression. Families also recover the value of services the deceased provided, such as childcare, household maintenance, and other contributions that now must be replaced or go undone. Medical expenses incurred before death, including hospitalization, surgery, and emergency treatment, are recoverable as well.
Non-economic damages address losses that have real value but no price tag. The loss of companionship, affection, guidance, and protection that family members would have received from the deceased falls into this category. Children who lose a parent lose years of guidance and support during critical developmental periods. Spouses lose their life partners and the plans they made together for their future.
The Investigation Process in Diagnostic Error Cases
Building a successful misdiagnosis wrongful death claim requires thorough investigation into what happened, why the diagnosis was missed, and whether proper diagnosis would have saved the patient’s life. This process begins long before any lawsuit is filed.
Obtaining complete medical records represents the critical first step. This includes not just records from the physician who made the diagnostic error, but all medical records from every provider who treated the patient before and after the misdiagnosis. Emergency room records, primary care physician notes, specialist consultations, laboratory results, pathology reports, and imaging studies all form pieces of the puzzle. Georgia law gives families the right to access these records, though healthcare providers sometimes delay production or release incomplete records requiring formal subpoenas.
Medical record review by qualified experts follows once all documentation is gathered. These experts analyze the timeline of the patient’s symptoms, what tests were ordered, how results were interpreted, and what treatment was provided. They identify exactly when and how the diagnostic error occurred and whether the physician followed or deviated from the standard of care. This analysis often reveals multiple failures in the diagnostic process rather than a single error.
How Georgia Medical Malpractice Laws Affect Diagnostic Error Claims
Georgia has enacted several statutes that specifically govern medical malpractice litigation, and understanding these laws helps families know what to expect when pursuing wrongful death claims based on misdiagnosis.
The Georgia Medical Malpractice Act establishes procedures that apply to all medical negligence cases, including requirements for expert affidavits, mandatory settlement conferences, and specific rules for expert witness qualifications. Under O.C.G.A. § 9-11-9.1, plaintiffs must attach an expert affidavit to their complaint or file it within certain deadlines after filing, certifying that they have consulted with a medical expert who believes the defendant’s care fell below the standard of care.
Joint and several liability in medical malpractice cases has been modified by Georgia statute to protect defendants in certain circumstances. When multiple healthcare providers contributed to a patient’s death through diagnostic errors, O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33 limits how much each defendant can be required to pay based on their proportionate share of fault, unless they are found to be 50% or more at fault for the death.
Insurance Company Tactics in Misdiagnosis Death Claims
Medical malpractice insurance companies defend diagnostic error claims aggressively because these cases often involve substantial damages and can lead to additional claims against the insured physician or hospital. Understanding their common tactics helps families prepare for the challenges ahead.
Insurers routinely argue that the patient’s death was inevitable regardless of when the diagnosis was made. This defense attacks the causation element by claiming the disease was too advanced, the patient’s overall health was too poor, or the survival rates for the condition are too low to prove that correct diagnosis would have saved the patient’s life. Defense medical experts present statistics showing five-year survival rates or argue that the patient had complicating factors that would have led to death anyway.
Attacking the standard of care by arguing the physician’s diagnostic approach was reasonable given the information available represents another common defense strategy. Insurance companies hire experts who testify that the symptoms were atypical, the condition was rare, or the defendant physician followed appropriate diagnostic protocols. They may argue that hindsight bias makes the correct diagnosis seem obvious now when it was actually unclear at the time.
The patient’s own conduct often becomes a target in these defenses. Insurance companies argue the patient failed to follow up on referrals, didn’t report all their symptoms accurately, or delayed seeking treatment themselves. Georgia’s comparative negligence rule under O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33 allows defendants to reduce damages if they can prove the patient’s own negligence contributed to their death, though plaintiffs can still recover as long as they were less than 50% at fault.
Selecting the Right Attorney for Your Misdiagnosis Death Case
Not all personal injury attorneys handle medical malpractice cases, and even fewer have the specific expertise required for wrongful death claims based on diagnostic errors. The complexity of these cases demands careful attorney selection.
Experience with medical malpractice litigation should be your first consideration. Attorneys who primarily handle car accidents or premises liability cases may lack the medical knowledge and expert witness networks needed for misdiagnosis claims. Ask potential attorneys how many medical malpractice wrongful death cases they have handled, what their results were, and whether they have specific experience with diagnostic error claims involving the same condition that killed your loved one.
Resources to fully investigate and litigate these cases matter significantly because medical malpractice lawsuits are expensive to pursue. Attorney must pay for expert witness reviews, medical record analysis, depositions of multiple healthcare providers, and trial testimony from specialists in relevant fields. Firms without adequate financial resources may pressure clients to accept low settlement offers or may not invest enough in building the strongest possible case.
The Emotional Impact on Families and Legal Considerations
Losing a loved one to medical misdiagnosis creates unique emotional challenges because families must process both grief and the knowledge that the death was preventable. This emotional burden affects how families navigate the legal process.
Anger at the healthcare providers who failed your family member is a natural response, but it must be channeled constructively during litigation. Emotional testimony can be powerful at trial, but families must also maintain composure during depositions and court proceedings where opposing attorneys may attempt to provoke emotional reactions that undermine credibility. Your attorney should prepare you for these situations while acknowledging that your feelings are valid.
The lengthy timeline of medical malpractice litigation extends the period during which families must actively engage with the circumstances of their loved one’s death. Unlike other wrongful death cases that may settle quickly, diagnostic error claims typically take 18 months to three years to resolve due to the complexity of proving medical negligence. Families must be prepared for this marathon, not a sprint, and understand that seeing justice done requires patience and persistence.
Hospital Protocols and How They Relate to Misdiagnosis Claims
Healthcare institutions implement various protocols and systems designed to prevent diagnostic errors, and violations of these protocols can strengthen wrongful death claims against hospitals and medical groups.
Differential diagnosis protocols require physicians to consider multiple possible explanations for a patient’s symptoms before settling on a single diagnosis. When doctors anchor prematurely on one diagnosis without ruling out serious alternative conditions, they breach this standard of care. Hospital policies often mandate that physicians document their differential diagnosis thought process, and missing documentation can indicate the physician failed to consider alternatives.
Tumor boards and multidisciplinary review processes exist in many hospitals to ensure complex diagnostic cases receive input from multiple specialists. When hospitals fail to implement these collaborative review processes or when physicians bypass them, the risk of diagnostic error increases substantially. Wrongful death claims can establish negligence by showing the hospital’s own protocols were not followed in the deceased patient’s case.
How Misdiagnosis Differs from Delayed Diagnosis
While both involve failures in the diagnostic process, misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis are legally distinct concepts with different implications for wrongful death claims.
Misdiagnosis occurs when a physician identifies the wrong condition and either provides inappropriate treatment or no treatment based on the incorrect diagnosis. The patient may be told they have anxiety when they’re actually having a heart attack, or that a suspicious lesion is benign when it’s actually cancerous. This active wrong diagnosis can cause harm both by delaying correct treatment and by subjecting the patient to wrong treatment that makes their condition worse.
Delayed diagnosis happens when a physician fails to identify any specific condition, tells the patient their symptoms are unclear or require monitoring, and sends them home without a definitive diagnosis or treatment plan. The correct diagnosis is eventually made, but only after additional time passes and the condition worsens. While no wrong diagnosis is made, the physician’s failure to pursue appropriate testing or specialist consultation means the patient doesn’t receive the treatment they need when they need it.
Common Questions About Roswell Misdiagnosis Wrongful Death Claims
What is the difference between a misdiagnosis and a reasonable difference of medical opinion?
Not every incorrect diagnosis constitutes medical malpractice, and Georgia law recognizes that medicine involves judgment calls where reasonable physicians may disagree. A misdiagnosis becomes actionable negligence when the physician’s diagnostic process falls below the standard of care that other competent physicians would have met under the same circumstances, not simply because they reached the wrong conclusion.
The key distinction lies in the diagnostic process, not just the outcome. If a physician takes a thorough patient history, orders appropriate tests, considers reasonable differential diagnoses, and makes a good-faith clinical judgment based on available information, that represents a reasonable medical opinion even if it turns out to be wrong. However, if the physician fails to order obvious diagnostic tests, ignores classic symptoms of serious conditions, or dismisses patient concerns without proper investigation, that failure to follow standard diagnostic protocols constitutes negligence regardless of whether another physician might theoretically have made the same mistake.
How long does a misdiagnosis wrongful death case typically take to resolve?
Most medical malpractice wrongful death cases in Georgia take between 18 months and three years from the initial filing of the lawsuit to final resolution, though complex cases can take even longer. The timeline depends on factors including court scheduling, the number of defendants involved, the complexity of the medical issues, and whether the case goes to trial or settles before trial.
The first six to twelve months typically involve written discovery where both sides exchange medical records, interrogatories, and document requests, followed by depositions of the parties, treating physicians, and expert witnesses. Settlement negotiations often occur after discovery is complete but before trial, which can be scheduled a year or more after the lawsuit is filed depending on court availability. If the case goes to trial, the trial itself may last one to three weeks, and appeals can add another year or more to the process if either side challenges the verdict.
Can I file a claim if my loved one had a pre-existing condition?
Yes, you can still pursue a wrongful death claim based on misdiagnosis even if your loved one had pre-existing health conditions, chronic illnesses, or other complicating medical factors. Georgia law recognizes that healthcare providers must meet the standard of care for each patient’s individual circumstances, including patients with complicated medical histories.
The legal principle of “taking the patient as you find them” means physicians cannot defend their negligence by arguing the patient was already unhealthy. If a physician’s diagnostic error caused or hastened the death of a patient with diabetes, heart disease, or other pre-existing conditions, the physician is still liable for the harm caused by the misdiagnosis. The pre-existing conditions may affect the calculation of damages by reducing the patient’s life expectancy compared to a perfectly healthy person, but they do not eliminate liability for diagnostic errors that caused preventable death.
What if the doctor says the disease was too advanced to treat by the time they saw my loved one?
This common defense requires careful scrutiny because physicians and their insurers often claim a patient’s condition was beyond treatment to avoid liability for diagnostic failures. Your attorney and medical experts must review the complete medical timeline to determine whether this claim is accurate or merely a litigation strategy.
The critical question is whether your loved one’s condition was already untreatable when they first presented to the defendant physician, or whether it only became untreatable because the physician’s diagnostic delay allowed the disease to progress. For example, if your loved one saw a doctor with early-stage cancer symptoms that were dismissed, and the cancer progressed to stage four during the months before the correct diagnosis was made, the physician cannot escape liability by pointing to the late-stage diagnosis they allowed to develop through their own negligence.
Do I need to file a claim against every doctor who treated my loved one?
Not necessarily, though this depends on which healthcare providers actually contributed to the diagnostic failure that caused death. Georgia law allows plaintiffs to sue all potentially liable parties, but strategic decisions about who to name as defendants should be made with your attorney based on the specific facts of your case.
Some misdiagnosis cases involve clear fault by a single physician who had all the information needed for correct diagnosis but failed to reach it. Other cases involve system failures where multiple providers missed opportunities to diagnose the condition, or where poor communication between providers led to critical findings being overlooked. Your attorney will analyze the medical records to identify which providers breached the standard of care and caused compensable harm, focusing the litigation on those defendants rather than casting too wide a net.
Can I sue the hospital or just the individual doctor?
Both the hospital and individual physicians can potentially be liable in misdiagnosis wrongful death cases, depending on the employment relationship and the nature of the negligence. Georgia law allows claims against hospitals under several theories including vicarious liability for employee physicians, negligent credentialing, and corporate negligence for system failures.
If the physician who misdiagnosed your loved one was a hospital employee rather than an independent contractor, the hospital is generally liable for the physician’s negligence under the doctrine of respondeat superior. Many emergency room physicians, hospitalists, and employed specialists fall into this category. However, if the physician was an independent practitioner with admitting privileges who happened to treat your loved one at the hospital, the hospital may not be vicariously liable unless other grounds for hospital negligence exist such as failure to implement proper diagnostic protocols or inadequate supervision of medical staff.
What happens if my loved one never signed a consent form or medical authorization?
The absence of signed consent forms or medical authorizations does not affect your ability to pursue a wrongful death claim for misdiagnosis. Consent forms relate to whether the patient agreed to specific treatments or procedures, not whether the physician met the standard of care in diagnosing the patient’s condition.
Misdiagnosis claims are based on the physician’s failure to correctly identify a medical condition, which is a separate issue from informed consent. In fact, many misdiagnosis wrongful death cases involve situations where no significant treatment was provided because the physician incorrectly believed no serious condition existed. Your right to bring a wrongful death claim stems from Georgia statutory law under O.C.G.A. § 51-4-2, which gives surviving family members the legal standing to sue for medical negligence that caused death regardless of what forms the deceased patient did or did not sign during treatment.
Will filing a lawsuit prevent the same thing from happening to other patients?
While the primary purpose of a wrongful death lawsuit is to obtain compensation for your family’s losses, these cases can also create positive changes that protect future patients. Hospitals and medical groups often implement new protocols, provide additional training, or discipline negligent physicians after being held accountable through litigation.
The discovery process in medical malpractice lawsuits can reveal systemic problems such as inadequate supervision of junior physicians, lack of quality assurance processes, or dangerous understaffing that contributed to the diagnostic error. When these institutional failures come to light through litigation, hospitals face pressure from their insurers, accrediting bodies, and the public to correct the problems. Additionally, physicians who have been found liable for diagnostic negligence may face licensing board reviews or restrictions on their practice that prevent them from harming other patients in the same way.
What if I can’t afford to pay an attorney upfront?
Most wrongful death attorneys who handle misdiagnosis cases, including Life Justice Law Group, work on a contingency fee basis, meaning you pay no attorney fees unless your case results in a settlement or verdict in your favor. This arrangement allows families to access experienced legal representation regardless of their current financial situation.
Under a contingency fee agreement, the attorney advances all case costs including expert witness fees, medical record costs, court filing fees, and deposition expenses. The attorney only recovers these costs and their fee if the case is successful, taking their payment as a percentage of the recovery (typically one-third to forty percent depending on whether the case settles or goes to trial). If the case is unsuccessful, you owe nothing for attorney fees, though some agreements require clients to reimburse advanced costs. Always review your fee agreement carefully before signing and ask questions about any terms you don’t understand.
How much is my misdiagnosis wrongful death case worth?
The value of wrongful death claims based on misdiagnosis varies dramatically depending on factors including the deceased person’s age, earning capacity, life expectancy, the number and ages of surviving family members, and the degree of negligence involved. Georgia law allows recovery of the full value of the life of the deceased, which includes both economic and non-economic losses.
Economic damages can be calculated with relative precision based on the deceased person’s salary history, expected future earnings, benefits, and the value of services they provided to their family. A 40-year-old professional with decades of work life remaining and dependent children will have higher economic damages than a retiree with no dependents. Non-economic damages for the loss of companionship, guidance, and affection are more subjective but equally real, and Georgia law allows juries to consider the unique value of the relationship each family member lost. Your attorney can provide a more specific valuation after reviewing your loved one’s financial records, employment history, and the specific facts of the misdiagnosis.
Contact a Roswell Misdiagnosis Wrongful Death Attorney Today
Losing a family member due to a preventable diagnostic error is one of the most devastating experiences anyone can face, and you deserve experienced legal representation to help you navigate this difficult time. Life Justice Law Group has successfully represented families throughout Roswell and Georgia in medical malpractice wrongful death cases, holding negligent healthcare providers accountable for the harm they cause and securing the compensation families need to move forward.
Our attorneys understand the medical complexities of diagnostic error cases and work with leading medical experts who can evaluate whether your loved one’s death resulted from a breach of the standard of care. We handle all aspects of your case on a contingency fee basis, meaning you pay nothing unless we recover compensation for your family. Call us at (480) 378-8088 for a free, confidential consultation to discuss your case, or complete our online form to schedule an appointment at your convenience.