What if the Doctor I am Suing has a Partnership or a Professional Corporation?
If a member of a medical group commits malpractice, can you sue all of his partners, even though they had nothing to do with the mishap? Yes. The law holds that when a doctor benefits from another doctor’s actions, he can also be held responsible for them. Since all members of the medical group benefit from the activities of every other member, they are all responsible for his malpractice, and it does not matter whether they have a partnership, or organized as a professional corporation (with the letters P.C. or P.A. after their names), or work together without any formal arrangement.
Joint Ventures
If two doctors work together, even informally, and benefit from each other’s actions, it may be a joint venture. They are Acting in Concert, and that is when two doctors are treating a patient and one doctor sees that the other doctor is committing medical malpractice but fails to stop it or warn the patient. An example of this is a California case in which the doctors claimed a patient did not have a case, because he could not prove how he was injured or who did it. How could he? He was under general anesthesia when it happened. The court held that everyone involved in his care could be called upon to explain their actions, and the Plaintiff did not have to pinpoint any particular person or guess what might have happened.
Whenever a patient is treated by a number of doctors or hospital employees, it is a joint venture, and everyone who was involved can be held Jointly and Severally liable for what happened, even though they all acted independently and had no control over each anothers actions. The Plaintiff’s injury could have been caused by more than one person, in a group of people, or in a hospital, and the Plaintiff has no way of knowing exactly who was to blame. Your lawyer will name them all and let the jury decide, or let them fight it out amongst themselves.
It can be difficult to determine who exactly was at fault in your client’s medical malpractice case. JD.MD can help you. Contact us today at 800-225-5363 for an initial case evaluation or a medical expert’s opinion.