Personal Injury vs. Medical Malpractice: The Difference

Because medical malpractice falls under personal injury, it isn't a separate alternative. What caused the harm separates malpractice from other personal injury claims. If medical care fell below accepted medical standards and injured a patient, it may involve malpractice; personal injury claims also cover harm that happened outside medical treatment.

If you're worried about what happened to you or a family member, start with what happened, not the label. Before you name your case, you can ask a lawyer to review it. Describe how you were affected by what happened.

Personal injury is the broader category

In the article Difference Between Personal Injury, Medical Malpractice ..., personal injury is described as a broad term that includes medical malpractice lawsuits. Both belong in that same category. When a law firm lists its practice areas, it might therefore include both personal injury and medical malpractice.

These aren't separate categories. Even when a claim involves medical treatment, calling it personal injury doesn't tell you that. When you say medical malpractice, you're referring more specifically to what a medical professional did, or failed to do, while caring for a patient.

When you're looking for a lawyer, remember that the labels overlap. Ask whether they handle medical malpractice claims if a diagnosis or treatment decision is what concerns you. You can't answer that question from the words “personal injury” alone.

Medical malpractice centers on the care you received

According to the Maryland article What is Medical Malpractice?, malpractice occurs when a doctor's actions, or failure to act, during patient care fall below accepted medical standards and cause harm. Both must be present. Unless the care failed to meet the standard and that failure caused an injury, it isn't malpractice.

Neither point follows from harm alone.

When you describe a possible claim, separate your concerns about the care from the harm you believe came from it. If you think a diagnosis was wrong, name it. Follow that with the injury you believe it caused. Ask a lawyer in your state or province how the legal rules apply to the facts you've described.

Tort Law: The Rules of Medical MalpracticeLawShelf6:51

An injury at a hospital isn't automatically malpractice

You can't settle this by pointing to the location. In a discussion on Reddit's r/legaladvice, a mistake in care is contrasted with a slip and fall in a hospital parking lot. Don't treat that illustration as a legal ruling. Even so, saying “this happened at the hospital” doesn't tell you which kind of claim you're describing, as that comparison shows.

Start with what happened. If your concern involves medical care, that's different from something unrelated to treatment. When you aren't sure which it is, you can describe the event as you remember it rather than try to pick a category.

Misdiagnosis and medication-related harm appear as examples associated with medical malpractice in the article Personal Injury Vs. Bodily Injury: Differences Explained. Even with a wrong diagnosis or harmful medication response, you don't automatically have a claim. Before you can tell, you need answers about whether the care met accepted medical standards and whether that care caused the harm.

Choose a lawyer by the work they handle

You can't learn much from a practice-area heading alone. If you're concerned about a certain kind of care, ask whether the lawyer handles those claims. To understand their review, ask how they'd assess whether that care caused your injury.

To start your first conversation, you can ask these questions:

• If a claim involves this kind of treatment, do you handle it?
• To assess whether the care fell below accepted standards, what information would you need?
• What would you examine to assess whether the care caused my injury?
• What deadline should I know about under the rules of the state or province that applies?

You can start with the medical malpractice lawyer page if you're in the US. Where you are matters. To find information for the place where you received care, you can use the US state pages or Canadian province pages. Just because a deadline applies in another state or province doesn't mean it applies to your claim.

Prepare a clear account before a case review

When you write your brief account, use your own words to explain when you received care and what you were told. Add the injury you believe followed. If you don't remember something, say so rather than fill in the gap.

If you already have records (such as the chart or discharge instructions), keep them available for review. When the lawyer needs to see something else, they can tell you. You don't have to make your notes sound like a medical opinion.

As you explain what happened, make clear what concerns you. When you say “The doctor prescribed this medication”, you're stating an event; saying “I believe it caused my injury” asks for review. Describing your experience this way doesn't mean you're claiming to have established that malpractice already occurred.

What to do next

Contact a lawyer who handles medical malpractice claims if you believe you've been injured by medical care. Describe what took place. Make sure you ask which statute of limitations applies. Before trying to predict a settlement, the first task is to assess the care you received and whether it caused the harm.