The medical malpractice losses you can face go beyond the mere cost of your procedure. Throughout your recovery, you may find yourself contending with sudden onset depression, emotional distress, pain and suffering, and similar conditions.
Many victims of medical malpractice find themselves wondering whether or not they have the right to bring a lawsuit against a medical professional for emotional damages. Similarly, family members contending with the wrongful death of a loved one may wish to file a claim demanding compensation for their loss of companionship.
Fortunately, New Mexico allows you to do just that.
Emotional Damages Are Non-Economic in New Mexico
Emotional damages fall under the broader category of non-economic damages in New Mexico civil courts. These damages stand in contrast to economic damages, or expenses related to medical malpractice that generate bills.
Your non-economic damages tied up in a medical malpractice case will not generate bills. Put another way, these damages do not come along with an inherent dollar value. Instead, you can elaborate on how these damages have impacted your life and use multipliers to determine their value.
Multipliers and Precedent Establish Your Case’s Value
More specifically, our medical malpractice attorneys in New Mexico refer to both case precedent and state-approved multipliers to determine what the dollar value of your emotional damages may be.
We use the state-approved multipliers as a baseline to establish how these damages might modify the economic damages tied up in your case. We can refer to precedent to determine how those multipliers might be further modified by the severity of your circumstances.
For example, cases involving the loss of a loved one may see you have the right to demand damages for loss of consortium, loss of companionship, and emotional distress, among other losses.
Liability in New Mexico Medical Malpractice Cases
Before you can demand emotional damages from a medical professional, you need to determine who specifically you want to hold liable for the damages you endured. Specifically, most medical institutions protect their full-time employees from civil suits. In turn, your claim may not target individuals, but rather an entire medical institution.
Unfortunately, medical institutions often have vicious legal teams that will use underhanded means to try and reduce the damages they believe they owe to you. This, however, is where a New Mexico personal injury lawyer comes into play. We can stand between you and a medical institution to make sure you have every opportunity to fight for the compensation you deserve.
You Must File for Emotional Damages Within New Mexico’s Statute of Limitations
Should you want to pursue a lawsuit citing emotional damages related to medical malpractice in New Mexico, you must do so in accordance with the statutes that control the state’s medical malpractice lawsuits. Specifically, you must file within a specific time frame for a court to consider it.
New Mexico outlines this mandatory deadline in its civil code. N.M. Stat. Ann. § 37-1-8 states that victims of medical malpractice or their representatives may take up to two years to bring a suit forward to a civil judge. The only time this statute varies is when the case in question addresses the care and keeping of a minor.
Minors who endure medical malpractice have until they turn 20 to bring a lawsuit forward. Prior to their turning 18, a minor’s parents can take legal action on their behalf. All parties interested in pursuing a lawsuit for emotional damage after medical malpractice can learn more about their options by communicating with a personal injury attorney.
Protect Yourself From Unchallenged Emotional Damages
If you are a victim of medical malpractice, you have the right to include emotional damages in your applicable lawsuit. You and a medical malpractice attorney in New Mexico can use state-approved multipliers to determine the value of the emotional damages.
For more information about how to pursue a lawsuit against an offending institution, you can reach out to us at Dominguez Law. We have helped countless victims of medical malpractice and are dedicated to providing each case the attention and compassion it deserves. To arrange a free consultation, give us a call at (505) 850-5854 or fill out our contact form.
We also speak Spanish.