Medical Malpractice Attorneys in Montana

A Settlement That Matters.

How does a medical malpractice lawsuit work?

Injuries from improper medical care can be devastating. A person already in need of medical treatment is further injured by someone they trust.

If you're considering moving forward with a medical malpractice claim, contact us so we can help you;

Determine if you have a valid malpractice claim.

At this stage, you may still be wondering if you have a case. It is important to remember:

-- Not all medical injuries and complications are avoidable.

-- Only complications or injuries caused by improper care qualify for medical malpractice lawsuits.
--In the state of Montana you only have 3 years after the incident to file a claim. 

Contact us so we can help you make this determination.

Types of Medical Malpractice Cases

You followed your doctor’s advice and went in for a blood test, a mammogram or other test. You trust that your doctor will quickly share the results with you and will act on any potentially important finding.

Immediate treatment can be vital. When critical results of any scan, lab, or pathology report are not properly and quickly communicated, serious harm can result. Treatment can be delayed, cancer can go undiagnosed, a tumor may double or triple in size before the patient notices its effects.

You trust your doctors to have the experience and expertise to correctly order, interpret, and respond to make sure you get the treatment you need. When they fail, the result can be a disaster for you and your family. We routinely review medical records and work with experts to help you understand whether you have a valid claim for an incorrect diagnosis of an injury or illness.

Even skilled surgeons sometimes make preventable errors that hurt their patient or perform surgeries not indicated for your illness. The patient may feel abandoned, with no explanation for how it all went wrong. Doctors don’t set out to hurt their patients but anesthesia or intraoperative errors can occur.

When serious complications happen, it’s important for you to know whether the problem could have been avoided. You need someone with the expertise and experience to help you find out what happened — and why.

Medicine can save lives, but if improperly given it can cause serious harm. You trust your doctor to prescribe the right medication at the right dose. You trust that your doctor does not give you the wrong dosage or wrong medication. You also trust that the medicine is safe for you considering your illness, other conditions, and other medications.

If you have been harmed by medication we can help you find out whether the medication was right for you, and whether your doctor and providers met their obligation to safely prescribe and administer your medications.

While under anesthesia, your welfare is entirely in the hands of the doctors and nurses caring for you. You can’t ask questions or alert others if something is wrong. Mistakes during anesthesia can be serious. A patient may not get enough oxygen, may go into shock or experience heart trouble. If not properly padded, arms and legs can be paralyzed. Anesthesia errors can cause permanent brain injury, disability, or even death.

Anesthesia cases can be very difficult to prove. You need an experienced legal team who can help analyze the care you or your loved one received, and can inform you whether you have a valid claim.

Patients don’t know and understand all of the risks associated with potential medical treatment; that is the responsibility of trained healthcare professionals. This is called “informed consent” and it is a specific responsibility of your healthcare providers to provide you with adequate information to understand the risks, benefits and alternatives to the treatment being recommended. When complications happen, we can help you find out whether you were given the proper information to make an “informed” decision before you agreed to treatment.

Brain injuries often lead to the need for a lifetime of care. Brain injuries can damage an individuals ability to care for themselves and/or need special care or medical support for the rest of their lives.

In the case of medical malpractice brain injury claims, these often happen as the result of stroke, hemorrhage, anesthesia errors, misdiagnosis, untreated infections, birth injuries, or any other condition limiting oxygen and blood supply to the brain.

If you’ve experienced a brain injury as the result of an accidental trauma, you may have a personal injury case. Please view our personal injury page for more information.

Our firm has successfully represented people with many types of brain injury cases. We have the experience and connections to medical professionals to help you seek a resolution to your medical malpractice claim.

SPINAL CORD INJURIES CAN CAUSE FULL OR PARTIAL PARALYSIS, LOSS OF BOWEL, BLADDER AND/OR SEXUAL FUNCTION.

WE HELP CLIENTS GET THE CARE THEY NEED THROUGH SETTLEMENT OR JUDGEMENT.

Spinal cord injuries can paralyze and disable. These injuries require special medical treatment and rehabilitation therapies. We have worked with leading spinal cord rehabilitation physicians in the western United States to help our clients recognize the treatment they need.

Presenting legal claims for spinal cord injuries requires knowledge of the full impact paralysis, loss of bowel, bladder or sexual function and all the life changes that go with these injuries can have on spinal injury victims and their families. Whether a spinal cord injury is caused by direct trauma, such as a motor vehicle accident, or by failure of doctors to promptly treat a minor injury and prevent the development of permanent spinal cord damage, we have the knowledge and experience to help you determine the proper treatment and maximize your financial recovery.

We invite you to look in the Results section of this website for examples of recoveries we have made for our clients who have suffered spinal cord injuries.

THE MIRACLE OF HAVING A BABY CAN ALSO BE A TIME OF REAL DANGER.

UNDERSTANDING WHETHER BIRTH INJURIES WERE CAUSED BY MALPRACTICE DEMANDS THE SKILLS OF LEGAL AND MEDICAL SPECIALISTS.

IF YOU SUSPECT THAT YOUR CHILD MAY HAVE BEEN INJURED BY IMPROPER MEDICAL CARE, WE WOULD BE HAPPY TO TALK WITH YOU ABOUT YOUR CASE.

Medical mistakes that deprive a baby of oxygen can cause permanent brain damage, creating a lifetime of special needs for the child. Traumatic delivery can injure a child’s nerves, muscles and bones causing severe disability. Improper care in the hours and days after delivery can allow dangerous conditions to progress to permanent injury. (These injuries can include things like cerebral palsy, brachial plexus nerve paralysis, hip dysplasia, and damage to other organs.) 

Successfully proving that birth injuries were caused by malpractice demands the skills of a legal specialist and medical experts. The attorneys in our firm have successfully handled these types of cases for nearly thirty years. We have the expertise to prove when a birth injury was caused by malpractice and to defeat the arguments put forward by the doctors and nurses responsible. Just as important, we have the knowledge and experience to help establish trusts and other financial arrangements to provide a lifetime of medical and economic security for an injured child and his or her family.

Sometimes the tragic consequences of birth injury are obvious. But other times a parent desperately hoping that everything is fine may overlook the relationship between events at birth and the condition of their child. Bone fractures, nerve injuries, epilepsy, seizures, attention deficit disorders, milestone delays, motor deficits, personality changes, incessant crying or aggressive behavior can all result from medical mistakes in the management of labor and delivery.

Our firm has a long track record of helping people deal with the crushing burdens of permanent birth injuries, including hypoxic brain encephalopathies, cerebral palsy, brachial plexus nerve paralysis, hip dysplasia, and damage to virtually all other major organ systems. We are thankful for the opportunity to have helped many parents who had the courage to confront the painful reality that their child was injured during pregnancy, at birth or thereafter by improper medical care. It is deeply satisfying for us to know those children have financial security for the rest of their lives in spite of their disabilities.

Not all birth injuries and childhood disabilities result from malpractice. However, if you suspect that your child may have been injured by improper medical care, we would be happy to talk with you about your case. We invite you to look at the Results section of our website for examples of the Montana birth injury settlement cases we have made for children and families who were the victims of avoidable birth injuries.

 

FAMILIES WHO HAVE LOST A LOVED ONE BECAUSE OF ANOTHER’S PROFESSIONAL ERRORS NEED SPECIAL ATTENTION. WITHOUT AN EXPERIENCED LEGAL TEAM, THE STRESS OF LEGAL PROCEEDINGS CAN BE TOO MUCH FOR THE FAMILY TO MANAGE.

When a loved one dies because of a healthcare provider’s errors, the victims suffer twice. Not only has a life been lost, but the survivors live with the painful knowledge that the death was unnecessary. Representing families who have lost a loved one requires special attention to the needs of the survivors well beyond making a legal claim for damages. Unless attorneys and their staff are experienced in working with bereaved families, the stress of legal proceedings can make the grief naturally experienced with the death of a loved one unbearable.

We have successfully represented many families in making legal claims for the wrongful deaths of husbands, wives, parents and children. Our attorneys and paralegals are sensitive to the overall needs of our clients in these most difficult of circumstances. We understand the often immediate need to replace a breadwinner’s income and pay medical and funeral bills while coping with the despair of losing a spouse, child or parent. We have extensive experience in protecting large wrongful death recoveries from financial risk. If the need arises, we can work closely with finance companies to “structure” all or part of a wrongful death recovery to provide lifetime monthly payments to replace a wage earner’s income, to provide college educations for children and security in retirement, in addition to cash payments at the time of settlement or trial.

If you have suffered the death of a loved one, we are ready and able to determine if there are grounds for making a legal claim. If so, we can represent you with compassion and understanding while bringing the wrongdoers to Justice in a court of law.

Here are some scenarios where these factors could be relevant:

Hospitals are expected to have adequate policies and procedures in place to ensure patient safety. If a hospital’s policies and procedures are found to be inadequate or not followed properly, resulting in harm to the mother or fetus, it may be possible to pursue a lawsuit. For example, if there is a failure to implement proper protocols, and harm occurs as a result, legal action may be considered.

Hospitals have a responsibility to provide appropriate training to their staff, including doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. If a healthcare provider lacks the necessary training to handle certain complications or emergencies, and harm occurs as a result, it may be possible to pursue a lawsuit. This could include situations where healthcare providers are not adequately trained to use medical equipment.

Inadequate staffing levels or staffing with insufficiently trained personnel can contribute to substandard care and potential harm to patients. If a hospital fails to maintain appropriate staffing levels or assigns unqualified staff to handle certain health situations, resulting in harm to the patient, legal action may be pursued.

In such cases, it is crucial to gather evidence that demonstrates the hospital’s negligence, such as medical records, expert opinions, and documentation of any policy violations or inadequate training. Consulting with a lawyer who specializes in medical malpractice is important to assess the viability of a lawsuit and navigate the legal process effectively.

How long will my case take?

Setting clear expectations for how long your medical malpractice lawsuit will take will help prepare you emotionally for the case ahead of you. 

Medical negligence cases can take anywhere from months to years to reach a resolution. Being prepared ahead of time for the financial and emotional timeline will help you feel more satisfied and better prepared when you reach a resolution.

If you feel you have a case, use our contact form to schedule a consultation with one of our paralegals.

Your initial call will help us ensure that you do have a solid case. 

It is helpful to have all of your paperwork in order to send over for review.  If we move forward beyond the initial consultation, we will need your permission to obtain medical records for review. 

We will need to do thorough analysis of your medical records and careful medical research. We may also require consultation with experts in the field. This can take time.

We will keep you informed every step of the way as we move from research into trial.

What are the limits of my claim?

Aside from preparing yourself for the amount of time that a medical malpractice case takes, you should also bear in mind what your maximum payout can be at the end of your case.

In Montana, medical malpractice claims are broken into two categories: non-economic damages and economic damages. 

Non-economic damages have a special legislative limit in medical malpractice cases, but not in personal injury cases. Non-economic damages involve the pain and suffering you or your family member experience as a result of your injury.

Alternatively, economic damages which can be incurred from medical bills, lost wages, or lost earning capacity have no legislative limits and are based on individual circumstances of your case.

If I had any questions, they would always answer them.

It was a tough decision for my husband and I to pursue a lawsuit for our son. You really have to believe in what you’re doing. The legal team at Buxbaum Daue made the process feel okay and helped us understand that we were pursuing justice – because a wrong had been done. The biggest challenge throughout the medical malpractice lawsuit was not knowing what to expect. The legal team at Buxbaum Daue helped me set the right expectations for the trial and guided us through the process and paperwork. ​

If I had any questions, they would always answer them. It was a hard, emotional decision but they were there throughout the whole process.​

Why Buxbaum Daue?

We have unmatched experience in Montana medical malpractice cases.

 

Before dedicating themselves exclusively to representing injured patients, our senior partners, Doug Buxbaum and Craig Daue, had many years of experience defending doctors and hospitals in malpractice cases. On the defense side, Doug and Craig handled cases from virtually all medical specialties. They know what to expect from malpractice defendants. Doug began representing injured patients in 1992, and Craig in 1999. Since then, they have evaluated and successfully represented hundreds of injured patients.

Supporting our lawyers are some of Montana’s best paralegals. We have recruited outstanding staff who have decades of combined experience in medical malpractice cases. You can rely on everyone at Buxbaum Daue to come prepared with a compassionate and dedicated focus on your case.

Millions Recovered

Take Control of Your Medical Malpractice Situation

Contact Our Accomplished Attorneys to Initiate the Process Today.

Our Capable Paralegals Will Collaborate with You in an Initial Consultation, Ensuring Every Step is Taken Towards Achieving a Positive Resolution.