Medi­cal lia­bi­li­ty is one of the most sen­si­ti­ve issues in civil law, as it deals with an area in which two fun­da­men­tal values inter­sect: the pro­tec­tion of health and trust in the doc­tor-pati­ent rela­ti­onship.

Medi­cal lia­bi­li­ty refers to the obli­ga­ti­on of doc­tors, health­ca­re pro­fes­sio­nals or medi­cal faci­li­ties to respond to harmful con­se­quen­ces resul­ting from negli­gent, impru­dent or incom­pe­tent beha­viour in the cour­se of their pro­fes­sio­nal acti­vi­ties.

Case in point

When lia­bi­li­ty may ari­se

In order to dis­cuss medi­cal lia­bi­li­ty, it is appro­pria­te to first exami­ne three fun­da­men­tal aspects:

  • the exis­tence of dama­ge to one’s health or physical/mental inte­gri­ty;
  • the error or fault of the health­ca­re pro­fes­sio­nal;
  • the cau­sal link bet­ween the event and the dama­ge suf­fe­r­ed.

The most com­mon cases whe­re medi­cal lia­bi­li­ty exists are:

  1. Dia­gno­stic and sur­gi­cal errors

    Delays or mis­dia­gno­ses, as well as impro­per­ly per­for­med pro­ce­du­res, resul­ting in, among other things, lost tre­at­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties and, in the most serious cases, the death of the pati­ent.

  2. Non-com­pli­ant den­tal tre­at­ments

    Poor­ly posi­tio­ned implants, ina­de­qua­te pro­s­the­ses or insuf­fi­ci­ent plan­ning.

  3. Pre­ven­ta­ble health­ca­re-asso­cia­ted infec­tions

    Com­pli­ca­ti­ons ari­sing from hygie­ne and orga­ni­sa­tio­nal defi­ci­en­ci­es.

  1. The­ra­peu­tic and phar­ma­co­vi­gi­lan­ce errors

    Incor­rect pre­scrip­ti­ons, unas­ses­sed inter­ac­tions, omis­si­on of man­da­to­ry pro­phy­la­xis.

  2. Lack of or defec­ti­ve infor­med con­sent

    Incom­ple­te infor­ma­ti­on on risks, alter­na­ti­ves and fore­seeable out­co­mes.

  3. Post-ope­ra­ti­ve moni­to­ring defi­ci­en­ci­es
Unfort­u­na­te­ly, the effects of poor health­ca­re manage­ment do not always affect only the per­son who has suf­fe­r­ed the dama­ge. Fami­ly mem­bers also suf­fer the nega­ti­ve effects of medi­cal errors. For this reason, the law pro­vi­des for a form of pro­tec­tion and com­pen­sa­ti­on for pecu­nia­ry and non-pecu­nia­ry dama­ge for them as well.
INTEGRATED APPROACH

Cross-bor­der cases

We under­stand how dif­fi­cult and worry­ing medi­cal cases invol­ving cross-bor­der tre­at­ment can be.

Our approach is desi­gned to mana­ge this com­ple­xi­ty by put­ting your pro­tec­tion first. We coor­di­na­te legal pro­cee­dings in both count­ries, and our expe­ri­ence allows us to main­tain a sin­gle, strong and con­sis­tent legal line at every stage of the dis­pu­te.

We fol­low a clear and rigo­rous pro­cess:

  • We recon­s­truct the link bet­ween medi­cal tre­at­ment and the dama­ge suf­fe­r­ed in a clear and unequi­vo­cal man­ner, in order to demons­tra­te the vali­di­ty of the cla­im;
  • We check that the health­ca­re ser­vices pro­vi­ded com­pli­ed with the gui­de­lines and stan­dards of care requi­red by the com­pe­tent juris­dic­tion;
  • We iden­ti­fy with cer­tain­ty the appro­pria­te judi­cial body and law for your spe­ci­fic case;
  • We mana­ge rela­ti­ons with the insu­rance com­pa­nies invol­ved direct­ly and com­pe­tent­ly,
  • sim­pli­fy­ing the bureau­cra­cy and ligh­tening the bur­den on our cli­ents.
Sce­na­ri­os

Typi­cal examp­les

Each sce­na­rio requi­res an accu­ra­te medi­cal-legal assess­ment and a tar­ge­ted legal frame­work.

Some par­ti­cu­lar­ly rele­vant are­as are:

Plastic/cosmetic sur­gery

Ine­vi­ta­ble impli­ca­ti­ons rela­ted to infor­med con­sent, accu­ra­te infor­ma­ti­on about risks, assess­ment of aes­the­tic out­co­mes, and manage­ment of com­pli­ca­ti­ons (e.g., asym­me­tries, dis­fi­gu­ring scars, unma­na­ged or unre­por­ted com­pli­ca­ti­ons). In this area too, fami­ly mem­bers may be entit­led to com­pen­sa­ti­on in the event of serious dama­ge or per­ma­nent out­co­mes.

Den­ti­stry and implan­to­lo­gy

Lia­bi­li­ty may ari­se from tech­ni­cal defects (implan­to­lo­gy) or cli­ni­cal orga­ni­sa­ti­on (e.g. implant fail­ures due to poor plan­ning, ner­ve dama­ge, defec­ti­ve occlu­si­on). Rela­ti­ves may also assert claims for com­pen­sa­ti­on in the event of serious con­se­quen­ces for the pati­ent.

Ortho­pae­dics and trau­ma­to­lo­gy

Errors in tech­ni­cal exe­cu­ti­on, post-ope­ra­ti­ve care or cli­ni­cal manage­ment are sub­ject to both tech­ni­cal and regu­la­to­ry assess­ment (e.g. ina­de­qua­te fix­a­ti­on, reduc­tion errors, fail­ure to fol­low up), with pos­si­ble com­pen­sa­ti­on exten­ded to fami­ly mem­bers.

Obste­trics and neo­na­to­lo­gy

Com­plex cases with high com­pen­sa­ti­on impli­ca­ti­ons, requi­ring inter­di­sci­pli­na­ry expert reports (hypo­xia, delay­ed caesare­an sec­tion, moni­to­ring defects). In such con­texts, par­ents or other rela­ti­ves may be entit­led to com­pen­sa­ti­on for moral dama­ges or loss of sup­port.

The­ra­pies and medi­ci­nes

Incor­rect pre­scrip­ti­ons, lack of phar­ma­co­vi­gi­lan­ce and omis­si­ons in the manage­ment of fore­seeable inter­ac­tions. Even in the­se cases, com­pen­sa­ti­on may extend to fami­ly mem­bers in the most serious cases.

Other rela­ted are­as

We also ope­ra­te in other are­as, depen­ding on the cir­cum­s­tances and spe­ci­fic cli­ni­cal issues.

reso­lu­ti­on

Our firm ful­ly empa­thi­ses with the cli­ent’s situa­ti­on, under­stan­ding the real pro­blem and the per­son’s sta­te of mind, in order to iden­ti­fy the most effec­ti­ve and per­so­na­li­sed solu­ti­on.

01.
Lis­tening and initi­al assess­ment

 


Our goal is to under­stand you and your pain, ensu­ring you recei­ve the best legal pro­tec­tion.

We ana­ly­se every docu­ment to deter­mi­ne the ext­ent of your inju­ries and, based on this, we iden­ti­fy the chan­ces of suc­cess and the most effec­ti­ve cour­se of action.

02.
We build the sci­en­ti­fic basis for your request

 

We col­la­bo­ra­te with a net­work of trus­ted medi­cal spe­cia­lists and experts to car­ry out tech­ni­cal and impar­ti­al assess­ments, accu­ra­te­ly quan­ti­fy­ing the dama­ge suf­fe­r­ed.

This is essen­ti­al in order to sup­port the cla­im for com­pen­sa­ti­on as effec­tively as pos­si­ble.

03.
Let’s try to achie­ve a fair result as quick­ly and smooth­ly as pos­si­ble.

We prio­ri­ti­se nego­tia­ti­ons and agree­ments in order to make the pro­cess less stressful and more effec­ti­ve in terms of cos­ts and results.

If this is not suc­cessful, we assess the pos­si­bi­li­ty of taking legal action.

What to expect
from our legal
advice

We gua­ran­tee a desi­gna­ted lawy­er, clear com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on on stages and time­lines, and con­stant updates throug­hout the pro­cess. Thanks to a bilin­gu­al team spe­cia­li­sing in Ita­li­an and Ger­man law, with offices in Frankfurt am Main, Rome and Flo­rence, the firm hand­les cases in both juris­dic­tions, ensu­ring ope­ra­tio­nal con­ti­nui­ty and stra­te­gic con­sis­ten­cy. The approach com­bi­nes Ita­li­an-Ger­man exper­ti­se, inte­gra­ted ana­ly­sis of issues (from infor­med con­sent to tech­ni­cal and orga­ni­sa­tio­nal aspects) and expert cross-bor­der manage­ment, which includes iden­ti­fy­ing the appli­ca­ble law and the com­pe­tent court for effec­ti­ve cli­ent pro­tec­tion.

In detail

Legal repre­sen­ta­ti­ve

A sin­gle point of cont­act for the enti­re pro­cess, with regu­lar updates and clear infor­ma­ti­on on suc­cess pro­ba­bi­li­ties, steps to fol­low and esti­ma­ted times­ca­les.

Proac­ti­ve, clear and trans­pa­rent com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on

Regu­lar updates, expl­ana­ti­on of stages and time­lines, gui­dance on the likeli­hood of suc­cess.

Inte­gra­ted ana­ly­sis of the case in ques­ti­on

We eva­lua­te every rele­vant aspect – tech­ni­cal errors, orga­ni­sa­tio­nal omis­si­ons, vio­la­ti­ons of infor­med con­sent or non-com­pli­ant the­ra­pies – accor­ding to the regu­la­to­ry, ethi­cal and insu­rance cri­te­ria of the coun­try concerned.v

Com­pre­hen­si­ve pro­tec­tion

Manage­ment of all stages, from initi­al assess­ment to poten­ti­al liti­ga­ti­on, with the aim of ensu­ring maxi­mum pro­tec­tion of the inte­rests of the pati­ent and their fami­ly mem­bers.

cont­act

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