The majority of costs related to any legal action may seem extremely high at first glance. However, if you pay close attention to the details, it is easier to fully understand the related costs. The same is true in a medical malpractice case. This article will discuss the costs related to a medical malpractice case, some common costs included and how such costs are paid for.

A Crowson Law Group attorney stated that “a lawyer’s costs in any medical malpractice case are the firm’s out-of-pocket expenses that are necessary so as to successfully build a case and move it along from state to finish (verdict or settlement). Such costs are typically passed along to the client if the case reaches a favorable outcome.” According to the Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute the term out-of-pocket expense [https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/out-of-pocket_expense] is “an expense paid from an individual’s own funds”. Therefore, with respect to medical malpractice cases, the law firm pays for the costs relating to the medical malpractice case.

Some typical costs relating to a medical malpractice cases include the following:

Court filing fees
Sheriff’s or constable’s fees for service of legal papers
Medical record request
Deposition transcript
The lawyer’s travel for deposition, mediation and court appearances
Mediation fees
Postage and overnight mail
Online legal research
Photocopying

To give a rough idea of a ballpark dollar figure for some of these cost in more detail, consider the following:
Court filing fees - these are simply the fees that the court charges to file the lawsuit and such fees can be between $200 and $500 depending on the court. After a lawsuit is filed, it must be formally served by a local sheriff or process server. Fees for service of legal documents are generally not more than $100.

With respect to medical malpractice cases, they generally require a lot of medical record requests. As a result, the lawyer has to request all of the client’s relevant medical records and bills from each of the client’s health care providers. A typical medical malpractice case can often have up to 15 to 20 separate requests. The cost for all of these requests might be as much as $1,000.

In a typical medical malpractice case it is necessary to undertake a lot of depositions. Depending on the case, there might be between 5 to 10 depositions. One article stated that, “deposition transcripts are expensive. Each transcript might cost $500 or more; so the total deposition bill for a medical case might be $3,000 or $4,000. The lawyers also have to travel to these depositions, as well as to mediations and court appearances. Lawyers charge for travel, and, if the travelling includes out of state or overnight visits, that can get expensive. It is not unusual for travel expenses to exceed a couple of thousand dollars in big cases.” 

Items like postage, overnight mail, online legal research and photocopying could be another $1,000 or so.

It should be noted that lawyers will incur some of the exact same fees discussed above in other personal injury cases. However, medical malpractice cases are generally far more expensive to litigate as compared with the average personal injury case. The main reason for this is that medical malpractice cases require costly expert witnesses so as to establish that medical negligence was the cause of the plaintiff’s harm and to establish the extent of that harm.

The client is able to pay for such costs by way of a ‘standard contingency fee agreement’ which provides that the lawyer will pay for these costs up front but will be entitled to recover them from any settlement or judgement that the client may get in the case. For expert advice on medical malpractice case call an Anchorage lawyer today.