Lawyers, doctors, and members of other professional associations may find themselves confronted with a malpractice suit at one point or another throughout their careers. These suits can be stressful for professionals and their businesses as a whole. With a lot on the line, it is critical that you understand the steps you need to take after you have been notified of a malpractice suit. Let’s discuss those steps here to help you should you ever find yourself in such a position.
How to Proceed if Your Business is Being Sued for Malpractice
Priority one after you are notified of a malpractice suit is to notify your malpractice insurance carrier. Any delay in notifying your malpractice carrier could result in unnecessary complications including the potential of having coverage denied. Furthermore, your malpractice insurance carrier is likely to have informational material they can provide to you on how you should proceed now that you know you are being sued for malpractice. Additionally, if your business has a risk management department, you should notify them as well.
Now is also the time to get as organized as possible. Locate those documents and files that are relevant to the subject of the malpractice suit, in particular. Get a good understanding of the problem that led to the malpractice suit, what might have been done to prevent it, and what documentation you will need to defend against it.
While you are gathering your documentation and reflecting on what could have been done to prevent the malpractice suit from happening in the first place, you should also be considering what can be done going forward within your business to prevent malpractice suits in the future. Do you need a more stringent client selection process? Are you choosing clients who have brought malpractice claims before and perhaps are a more litigious-prone person than you’d like to have on your client list?
In addition to being more selective in the client department, you should review your office systems and whether they are serving you and protecting your business from things like malpractice liability. Do you have systems in place for following up with clients and making sure that your office is consistently touching base with them? Sometimes, a phone call to a client can go a long way. How is your document management and filing system? Is it maximizing office efficiency and making sure you know where and how to access what you need without having to go digging for it?
Business Law Attorneys
Being amid a malpractice suit is stressful, to say the least. It is also an opportunity to not only address the situation at hand but also to take a look at what can be done better in your business to prevent these problems from arising again. Throughout it all, the dedicated business attorney team at Jones, Gregg, Creehan & Gerace is here to help. Contact us today.