Medical Malpractice Terms and Definitions

Duty of Care Once a doctor or health care professional agrees to diagnose or treat a patient, he or she has assumed a duty of care toward that patient. Arbitration A process for deciding a legal dispute out of court; a substitute for an ordinary trial. Stipulation An agreement, admission or concession made in a judicial proceeding by the parties or their attorneys, thus relieving a party of its obligation to produce evidence in support of an argument or allegation. Subrogation A process by which a third party is put in the place of a creditor so that the rights and securities of the creditor pass to that third person. Proximate Cause Proximate cause is defined legally as a cause which, in a natural and continuous sequence, unbroken by any intervening event, produces injury, and without which, the injury would not have occurred. Trigeminal Neuralgia A disorder of the trigeminal nerve that causes brief attacks of severe pain in the lips, cheeks, gums, or chin on one side of the face. Elder Abuse Is any "physical abuse, neglect, financial abuse, abandonment, isolation, abduction or other treatment with resulting in physical harm or pain or mental suffering, or the deprivation by a care custodian of goods or services that are necessary to avoid physical harm or mental suffering Joint-and-several liability Liability in which each liable party is individually responsible for the entire obligation. Under joint-and-several liability, a plaintiff may choose to seek full damages from all, some, or any one of the parties alleged to have committed the injury. Confidentiality The principle that prohibits physicians from disclosing confidential comments made to them by patients unless required to do so by law. The law may require physicians to violate patient confidentiality if the patient poses a serious threat to his or her own health and the well-being or that of others. Causalgia Pain, usually burning, that is associated with autonomic changes -- change in color of the skin, change in temperature, change in sweating, swelling. Causalgia occurs after a nerve injury.

Please contact us if anyone you know has suffered from debilitating injuries due to medical malpractice in Montana.

	Did You Know?
	Gastric-Bypass surgery is an intrusive & risky surgical operation Gastric-bypass malpractice occurs when a medical professional causes harm or personal injury while performing the surgery or through a general or particular negligence. Some types of gastric bypass operations: Open Roux en Y (Rny), (Restrictive with some Malabsorption) Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y,Fobi Pouch (Restrictive with Malabsorption) , stomach staple, & more.