15 Feb When Can You Take Legal Action After Signing a Waiver?
It’s important to know your options for taking legal action if you’ve signed a waiver for medical procedures. Just because you sign something does not grant a medical provider carte blanche to do anything with impunity. We’d like to discuss what a medical waiver is, and how it doesn’t mean you cannot sue for malpractice.
What is a Medical Waiver?
A medical waiver is a type of informed consent that a physician or healthcare provider will have you sign before undergoing certain treatments or procedures. You may encounter this before having surgery or other treatments that carry known risks or complications.
Medical facilities require these in order to protect themselves from lawsuits based on those known risks. Of course, this doesn’t mean they can administer a procedure haphazardly or attempt other treatments simultaneously without your approval.
When Can You Take Legal Action After Signing a Waiver?
Ideally, you would contact a lawyer to have them review the waiver with you prior to signing it. That’s the most prudent way to avoid signing away too many rights or missing the “fine print.” This is good advice before signing any contract.
Nevertheless, there are circumstances where you can take legal action if you suspect medical malpractice.
- You sustain injuries that fall beneath the accepted medical standards for care at any point while under the care of a medical professional.
- Your healthcare provider commits any type of gross negligence such as applying a treatment to the wrong patient or blatant misuse of instruments.
- Unless it’s an emergency, doctors must inform you of every procedure or treatment they perform.
Medical waivers, as you can tell, were designed to help patients understand treatment risks, and protect physicians against excessive litigation. However, doctors must still adhere to regulations and medical standards, including those found in state law or established by the American Medical Association (AMA). You never have to settle for obvious negligence from your healthcare provider.
We hope this clarifies a few of the fine points regarding medical waivers and your right to sue for malpractice. Of course, we can only say so much in a simple blog post. If you’d like to learn more about this topic, or determine if you’re eligible to take legal action over personal injury, we can assist.
Gruenberg Kelly Della is an experienced and well-staffed law firm, representing clients in the Long Island community. Our practice has helped individual clients obtain over $10 million, in some instances, thanks to our dedicated legal counsel. Find out how to gain recompense for an accident, negligence, or medical malpractice by contacting us at 631-737-4110.