Laws vary from state to state, but the elements of a health care liability claim for medical malpractice or medical negligence are generally:

• a physician or health care provider is a defendant;

• the claim or claims at issue concern treatment, lack of treatment, or a departure from accepted standards of medical care or health care, or safety, professional, or administrative services directly related to health care;

• the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care;

• the defendant breached its duty of care by not meeting the required standard of care; and

• the defendant’s act or omission proximately caused the plaintiff’s injury (was the primary cause of the injury).

In California, medical malpractice laws are designed to protect patients from professional negligence by health care providers. To establish a medical malpractice claim in California, the following elements must be proven: (1) the existence of a doctor-patient relationship, establishing a duty of care owed by the health care provider to the patient; (2) a breach of the standard of care, which is the level of skill, knowledge, and care in diagnosis and treatment that other reasonably careful health care providers would use in the same or similar circumstances; (3) causation, meaning that the breach of the standard of care was a substantial factor in causing harm to the patient; and (4) damages, which are the losses the patient suffered as a result of the breach, such as additional medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering. California law also imposes specific procedural requirements for medical malpractice claims, including a statute of limitations for filing the lawsuit, which is generally three years from the date of injury or one year from the date the plaintiff discovers or should have discovered the injury, whichever occurs first. Additionally, California has a cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases, which limits the amount of compensation for pain and suffering to $250,000.