New Mexico Medical Malpractice Statute of Limitations

If you have been a victim of medical malpractice in New Mexico, consider hiring a lawyer. Malpractice can be devastating to both your health and your finances, requiring expensive additional medical treatment and possibly leading to lost wages. The state of New Mexico recently lifted a cap that limited malpractice damages to $600,000, which means that you now have more recourse than ever to pursue the compensation owed to you.

However, you should be aware of the New Mexico medical malpractice statute of limitations. New Mexico limits the window of time for a medical malpractice lawsuit to three years after the instance of malpractice. More specifically, this means three years after the date that the malpractice occurred, rather than the time that you discovered it or that it began taking a toll on your health and comfort.

For this reason, you should act quickly on your malpractice case. Do not hesitate to pursue legal action if you believe that negligent medical care injured you. Carabin Shaw employs New Mexico medical malpractice lawyers who are happy to discuss your case and help you determine whether you have grounds for a lawsuit. Contact us today for a free consultation or a meeting with one of our attorneys.

For an instance of medical care to constitute malpractice, it has to meet two criteria. First, it must lead to some avoidable injury or health complication beyond the scope of what one could usually expect from the procedure. Second, a jury must believe that a physician would not have made the error if they were acting competently. Before filing a lawsuit for medical malpractice in New Mexico, you must consider whether the mistake was due to negligence or incompetence.

Similarly, you must consider whether the malpractice resulted in an injury that has impacted your quality of life. A minor error that the physician was able to fix easily is likely not an instance of malpractice. If you are unsure whether your treatment met both of these conditions, speak with one of our New Mexico medical malpractice lawyers about the specifics of your case.

Malpractice can occur at any step in the process of medical treatment. Some common types of malpractice include surgical error and prescription error.

Surgical error includes operating on the incorrect area of the body, performing the wrong operation entirely, or even leaving medical tools inside of the body. All of these instances of malpractice can result in internal bleeding and infection, and risk harming healthy parts of the body while allowing the affected area to get worse. Surgical error is one of the most commonly reported types of medical malpractice in New Mexico.

Prescription error can be the result of a negligent failure to check the patient’s medical records for allergies or possible drug interactions, or merely a human error involving misreading a prescription or accidentally selecting the wrong option in an electronic system. Prescription errors can be hugely dangerous and cause significant and lasting damage to a patient’s health.

Malpractice can also occur on the part of nurses, anesthesiologists, or medical technologists. Determining who was responsible for your damages is vital when deciding whether to target a hospital or an individual in your lawsuit, as doctors are usually not hospital employees.

When searching for a personal injury lawyer to handle your malpractice case, look for someone experienced with cases like yours and who has a record of dedication to their clients. Carabin Shaw’s attorneys have decades of combined experience handling malpractice cases like yours. We are dedicated to winning our clients all of the compensation that they deserve.

Contact our New Mexico office at 915-779-2301 or toll-free at 1-800-862-1260 to start your process of recovery.