General Info:
We, the attorneys and professional staff, at Nash & Associates welcome our readers to this new section on our web page. Our firm has recently undertaken the task of revamping the design and content of our web page to provide you, the public, with information we hope you may find useful in understanding issues such as current trends and decision in the law of medical malpractice as well as issues relating to the art and science of medicine. It is our intention and therefore our goal to provide you with a better understanding of how the legal process actually works in the jurisdictions in which we are licensed to practice Maryland and the District of Columbia. Families are often overwhelmed and deeply grieved by the death of a loved one. They want to understand what factors directly caused the death as part of their grieving process. Perhaps they also want to learn how to protect other family members from the same outcome. Sometimes the family questions whether a medical mistake or missed diagnosis was involved in the death. If your loved one died suddenly, the cause of death uncertain, and/or was not under the care of a physician, most states require the hospital contact the Medical Examiners Office ( MEO ) to perform the autopsy. However, if the death did not meet criteria for an MEO autopsy as defined by your state's laws, the hospital may still request permission from the family to perform the autopsy. This is especially true if they feel the family and/or medical community would benefit in some way from the knowing results. The physician will request your signed permission to perform various autopsy procedures. An autopsy can be a simple anatomical evaluation, or it can be a complex analysis of body fluids, organs and tissues. Together with the physician, you will decide what level of autopsy is required to answer the questions you both may have. What is a wrongful death lawsuit? In the context of a medical malpractice lawsuit, wrongful death is essentially an allegation that due to the negligence of a health care provider, such as a doctor, nurse, physician's assistant or hospital, your loved one has died. The death is considered to be wrongful because you, as a Plaintiff, will be alleging that it was the negligence of the health care provider that led to your loved one's death. Typically, the person or persons allowed to recover for the wrongful death of an individual are those members of the decedent's immediate family, such as spouse, children or mother or father depending on who the 'legal beneficiaries' are in each given situation. Do you, the consumer-client, really understand the process of how to search for the right lawyer? See our first posting How do I find the right lawyer? Do you know what questions to ask when you are interviewing a lawyer? Do you really understand what the process of an investigation and a lawsuit?